What Is Plan Forward?
Plan Forward is a dental membership plan platform that helps practices create, implement, grow, and maintain in-house membership programs for uninsured patients. The platform automates everything that makes membership plans a nightmare to manage manually: billing, renewals, member communications, plan customization, and reporting.
The problem Plan Forward solves is real. About 77 million Americans lack dental insurance, and membership plans are the proven way to capture that population with predictable recurring revenue. But running a membership plan on spreadsheets or through your PMS's limited tools is tedious and error-prone. Plan Forward makes it turnkey.
The platform integrates directly with over 20 practice management systems, including Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Dentrix Ascend, and Denticon. This means member data syncs automatically -- no double entry, no reconciliation headaches.
Who Is It For?
Plan Forward serves solo practices, group practices, and DSOs. The DSO offering supports multi-location plan management with centralized dashboards, standardized plan structures across locations, and location-specific customization where needed.
The ideal customer is any practice with a meaningful uninsured patient population that either does not have a membership plan yet or has one that is underperforming because it is managed manually. Plan Forward's data shows that practices with well-run membership plans see higher patient retention, increased treatment acceptance, and more predictable revenue.
Specialty practices can customize plans to their specific service mix, and multi-location groups can standardize plan structures while allowing per-location pricing flexibility.
Key Features
Plan Design and Customization: Build custom membership plans with your own pricing, packaging, and included services. Create multiple plan tiers (individual, family, perio, etc.) with different benefits and price points. Customize everything from plan names to terms and conditions.
Automated Billing and Renewals: Automatic recurring billing via credit card or ACH. Automated renewal processing with pre-renewal notifications to members. Failed payment retry logic and dunning sequences to minimize churn.
PMS Integration: Direct integration with 20-plus practice management systems. Member status, plan details, and billing data sync automatically. Eliminates double entry and keeps your PMS as the system of record.
AI-Powered Analytics: Track plan performance with metrics like enrollment growth, revenue per member, renewal rates, churn analysis, and plan utilization. AI-driven insights identify opportunities to grow enrollment and reduce attrition.
Member Communications: Automated emails for enrollment confirmation, renewal reminders, payment receipts, and plan updates. Customizable templates that match your practice branding.
Multi-Location Management: Centralized dashboard for DSOs with per-location plan management, cross-location reporting, and standardized plan templates.
Pros
- Purpose-built for dental membership plans with deep domain expertise
- Founded by a dental practice operator who lived the problem
- Integrates with 20+ practice management systems
- AI-powered analytics for plan performance optimization
- Automated billing, renewals, and member communications
- Strong DSO support with multi-location management
Cons
- No published pricing -- requires a sales conversation
- Focused solely on membership plans, not a broader patient financing solution
- Smaller company with limited public reviews
- $2 million in funding is modest compared to competitors with deeper pockets
- Limited brand recognition outside the membership plan niche
- Some practices may prefer a membership feature built into their PMS over a standalone tool