Open Enrollment Is a Loyalty Test: How Dental Practices Keep Patients Through Coverage Changes

During open enrollment, patients' loyalty is tested by their coverage. Some switch plans and find their practice is out of network, some drop dental entirely, and some just drift.

Patients who feel connected to their practice look for a way to stay. Patients who only know the practice through their insurance card follow the network. Open enrollment is when that connection matters most, and it's built through the small, consistent touchpoints that happen all year.

Below are three moves timed to the season, from now through January, and two that build the kind of loyalty that survives a coverage change.

Now: Get ready before patients decide

Give patients a better way to access care before open enrollment closes

For some patients, the problem isn't losing coverage. It's keeping coverage that costs more than the care it pays for. They pay premiums every month, run into annual maximums and waiting periods, and still owe more than they expected. Others come out of open enrollment with dental insurance that doesn't include you, or no coverage at all. For all of them, cost and coverage rules become a reason to put off visits.

A membership plan gives them a simpler path to care. The practice sets the price and what's included. There are no networks or claims to sort through, so patients know what they'll pay upfront and can come in when they need to. The practice keeps the relationship directly, without depending on a network to send patients back.

To make it work this season:

• Design it around the care patients skip. Patients paying out of pocket are most likely to put off preventative visits, so build a plan around them. A preventative plan could include, exams, cleanings and x-rays.

• Automate outreach. Automatically send enrollment invitations to uninsured patients on the schedule to give them a better way to get care.

• Give the front desk a simple line to offer it. When a patient mentions a new plan, losing coverage, or high out-of-pocket costs, the membership plan is an answer they can offer on the spot.

A line your team can use:

"If your coverage is changing, we have an in-house membership plan that includes your cleanings and exams for one [monthly/annual] price, plus savings on other treatment. Want me to walk you through it?”

In Curve: Curve Memberships lets practices build and manage their own plans, automatically reaches uninsured patients on the schedule, and lets them enroll on their own.

November and December: Before benefits reset

Bring patients in before benefits reset

The easiest way to keep patients through a coverage change is to see them before it happens. Patients due for recare are some of the simplest visits to fill before the end of the year.

Your regular recare reminders tell patients they're due. A year-end message gives them a reason to book now: for most plans, benefits reset on January 1.

A few things make year-end recare outreach work:

• Text everyone at once. A mass text reaches patients who never answer a call and takes minutes instead of an afternoon.
• Include an online booking link. Patients can pick a time on their own, even after hours.
• Time it to your openings. Send the first round while you still have room in November and December. Check your schedule before a second round in early December, and skip it if you're already full.

A simple version:

Hi [First Name], it's time for your next visit at [Practice Name]! If you have dental benefits left this year, booking before January 1 helps you use them before they reset. Book online at [link] or call [phone].

In Curve: Practices can create a recare campaign in Curve GRO and send it as a mass text to every patient with recare due.

January: When new plans start

Verify coverage before the patient visits

A new plan that doesn't list your practice doesn't always mean a lost patient. Many patients assume "out of network" means "not covered" and start looking for a new dentist without checking.

Many PPO plans include out-of-network benefits. The patient may pay more in the office, usually the difference between your fee and what the plan allows. For some patients, that difference is smaller than they expect, and more manageable than the cost of starting over with a provider who doesn't know their history.

• Verify the new plan before their next visit. Confirm the plan type, what it covers out of network, and what the patient would actually owe.
• Show the patient the real cost. A specific estimate is more persuasive than "you may still have coverage here."
• Offer the membership plan when insurance won't work. HMO plans typically cover care only in network. For those patients, and for anyone who dropped coverage, the plan you set up in October is the way to stay.

A line your team can use:

"Your new plan may still cover visits here as out-of-network. Want us to check what your costs would look like before you decide?"

In Curve: Eligibility+ verifies patients' coverage, so the front desk can confirm benefits on new plans without an afternoon on hold with carriers.

All year: Build the connection

Build trust in the chair

When a new plan puts your practice out of network, the deciding factor often isn't the fee schedule. It's whether the patient feels known. A patient who trusts their provider asks "how can I stay?" A patient who doesn't asks "who's in network?"

That trust is built through a provider's full attention. Patients notice when a provider looks at them, not a screen, while explaining treatment. They notice when someone remembers what they shared last time: a new job, a kid starting college, what made them nervous.

Two things get in the way. Documentation pulls providers' eyes to the keyboard during the visit. And visits are six months apart, with patients not always seeing the same hygienist, so personal details get lost unless someone writes them down.

A few habits help:

• Capture one or two milestones per visit. A brief note with enough to connect and appropriate for the record..
• Review notes before the patient walks in. A quick look is all it takes to open with something personal.

In Curve: Curve Care+ Notes+ uses AI to capture notes during the visit, so providers can stay focused on the patient instead of the keyboard. Practices can add a section to their Notes+ templates for personal milestones, so details like a new job or an upcoming wedding are captured with the clinical notes, without extra typing.

Stay connected beyond the appointment

The real test often comes after open enrollment ends. In January, new plans start, deductibles reset, and patients decide whether to book. The practices they've heard from recently are the ones they call.

Most of what patients hear from their practice is about appointments and balances. Birthday and anniversary messages are different. They show patients the practice knows them as people, not just as a recall date, and that's the feeling that carries them through a coverage change.

To keep these messages working:

• Keep them short and personal. A line or two is enough.
• Send them from the practice's name. It should feel like it came from the team, not a system.

A simple birthday message:

Happy birthday, [First Name]! Everyone at [Practice Name] hopes you have a great day.

And for a patient anniversary:

[First Name], it's been [X] years since your first visit with us. Thank you for being part of the [Practice Name] family!

Connection also runs the other way. When patients have a quick question, like whether their new plan works at your practice, a fast text reply beats a voicemail and a callback. It also gives your team the chance to check the new coverage before the patient goes looking for answers somewhere else.

In Curve: Curve GRO sends automated birthday and anniversary messages and supports two-way texting, so patients hear from the practice regularly and can reach it quickly, without adding work for the front desk.

Loyalty isn't won during open enrollment. It's tested there.

The first three moves follow the season. A membership plan ready in October, conversations before benefits reset, and a coverage check when new plans start keep you in front of patients while their decisions are being made, and give them a way to stay when their new coverage doesn't include you.

The last two build the connection that makes patients want to stay in the first place. Providers who remember the details, and messages that have nothing to do with billing, turn a practice on an insurance card into a practice patients choose.