It's a Thursday in September. At checkout, a pet parent hears the total for Bella's annual exam, vaccines and heartworm test, then asks to skip the bloodwork this year. The DVM had wanted it. Two spots down the counter, the dental recommended back in spring still isn't on the calendar.
Scenes like that add up. Visits across US practices fell 3.1 percent in 2025 and wellness visits 3.8 percent, according to data reported by Today's Veterinary Business. Prices went up while pet parents came in less.
That's why so many owners are asking whether wellness plans are worth it for a small practice. The short answer: usually yes, when the plan is built from your own care standards, priced per pet, and billed without the desk chasing cards. Here's how to judge it for your practice, and how to set one up so it pays.
The plan, defined plainly
A wellness plan is a monthly payment that covers a set bundle of routine care for one pet over a year. Exams, core vaccines and the yearly tests are the usual base. Many plans add a member saving on other services.
It doesn't cover illness or injury. A plan is not a promise to pay for whatever happens to the pet. It spreads the routine care you already recommend over twelve monthly payments, so the pet parent never meets the full total at once.
Getting that line clear matters for your team and for pet parents. If anyone at the desk describes a plan as covering emergencies, you'll hear about it later.
Why plans can be worth it
The first gain is predictable money. A few hundred members paying on the same day each month smooths out the slow weeks in winter and makes staffing easier to plan.
The second is visits. Once the care is paid for, pet parents tend to use it. The exam, the booster and the test all happen, often in fewer trips, and the DVM sees the pet on schedule rather than when something's already wrong.
The third is loyalty. A household on a plan has a reason to stay. They're far less likely to try the clinic down the road for a cheaper vaccine.
And checkout gets calmer. There's no price shock at the counter, so no awkward conversation about which recommended item to drop.
When plans aren't worth it
Plans go wrong in a few familiar ways. The most common is pricing too low. A generous discount stacked on every service can leave a member who uses everything costing you money.
The second is billing that leans on the desk. Expired cards, failed payments and the phone calls to fix them can eat hours every week. If the CSRs end up chasing payments by phone, the plan's real cost goes up fast.
The third is a plan nobody explains. If techs and CSRs aren't confident offering it, enrollment stalls at a handful of members, and the setup work never pays back.
Finally, watch for the early cancel. A pet parent who joins, uses the exam and vaccines in month two and then stops paying has had a discount rather than a membership. A clear 12-month agreement prevents that.
What to include
Start from the preventive care your DVMs already recommend for each life stage. A puppy or kitten plan, an adult plan and a senior plan cover most practices. Some add a dental tier for adult and senior pets. Two or three choices per species is plenty; more and people stall at the counter.
Include what you'd recommend every year anyway: the exams, core vaccines, routine tests and parasite screening your protocol calls for. Then add a modest member saving on things outside the plan, so members feel the benefit on every visit.
Leave out anything you can't predict. Plans work because the care in them is routine. Treatment for illness belongs outside, at your normal prices, with the member saving applied.
How to price a plan per pet
Price every plan per pet, not per household. The math is simple. List the services in the plan at your full prices and add them up. Take off the member saving you've chosen. Divide by twelve.
Say an adult dog plan's services total $600 at your prices. A 15 percent saving brings it to $510 for the year, or $42.50 a month. Some practices add a one-time enrollment fee to cover the first visit's admin.
Then check the plan against your costs. Assume a member uses every single service in it. Does the plan still cover what that care costs you to deliver? If not, trim the saving or the contents until it does.
A second-pet price can help households with several animals join together. Keep it simple, such as a set amount off each additional pet's monthly price.
When a pet dies mid-plan
Decide this before you sell the first plan, and write it into the agreement. Many practices end the plan on the day of the death and waive any balance owed for care already used. Asking a grieving family to settle a bill tends to cost far more goodwill than the money it brings in.
On the same day, stop every reminder for that pet and send a short sympathy note. If the household has other pets on plans, those carry on as normal.
Getting pet parents to enroll
Offer the plan where the cost is clearest. The first puppy or kitten visit and the annual exam are the natural moments, because the pet parent is looking at a year's care right then.
The tech who runs the exam is often the best person to raise it, with the CSR closing it at checkout. Show the year's price next to the monthly price on one page. Let the pet parent sign and add a card on their phone before they leave, so the first payment goes through today.
Reminders help too. A note before the annual exam that mentions the plan gives pet parents time to think before they're at the counter. Our guide to a veterinary reminder system covers that timing.
Someone has to own it
A plan nobody owns drifts. Name one person, most often the practice manager, to track enrollments, cancellations and failed payments, and to keep the team's pitch sharp.
Give techs and CSRs the same short explanation to use, so every pet parent hears it the same way. Something like: "Bella's care this year comes to about $600. On the plan it's $42.50 a month, and today's exam is part of it." Two sentences, a real number and today's visit. That's enough to start the conversation.
Go over the plan at a team meeting each quarter. Ask what questions pet parents raised and which ones nobody could answer, then fix the one-page sheet.
Keeping members after year one
Renewal is where plans quietly lose ground. Send each member a note about 30 days before renewal that shows what they used and what they'd have paid without the plan. Make the agreement renew on its own unless they opt out, and say so plainly at signup.
Keep members using their care during the year, too. A member who never comes in feels they paid for nothing. A reminder for the exam their plan already covers is the easiest booking you'll make.
Watch the numbers each month: active members, new enrollments, cancellations and failed payments. Our post on veterinary practice KPIs shows where those fit with the rest.
How CompanionBooked runs wellness plans
We set up your plans in Payments & Wellness Plans, using the tiers and prices you choose. Pet parents sign up on their phone with an e-signature, and the card stays on file for monthly billing.
When a card fails, the pet parent gets a secure update link by text, and payment reminders go out before anything lapses. Your CSRs stop making those calls. Invoices go out digitally, and any other bill can be paid by text-to-pay.
Members get reminders for the care their plan includes, from your practice's own number. When a pet is marked as deceased, its reminders stop and a sympathy note goes out. Each month you can see members, payments and renewals at a glance.
CompanionBooked
From the CompanionBooked team. We set up wellness plans, payments, phones and booking for US vet practices, and we build their websites and run their marketing on one monthly plan.
