Health Plans

Introduction

1. What is a health plan?

2. Why should I offer health plans at my clinic?

3. What type of clinic would not be interested in health plans?

4. Personal branding and positioning of the clinic

5. Pricing policy: strategy

6. Who should design health plans?

7. Before starting: do the numbers

8. What do health plans include?

9. What should be excluded from health plans?

10. Key points to consider when designing health plans

11. Health plans for dogs

12. Health plans for cats

13. Health plans for exotic animals

14. We already offer health plans! So, now what do we do?

15. Health plan marketing

16. Benefits of implementing health plans

17. Health plans are living things

Bibliography

Annex I: Examples of types of health plans

Annex II: Letter templates

The specific objective of this practical manual is to help veterinary professionals and/or managers of veterinary clinics to design the best possible health plans for their centre, whether starting from scratch or seeking to improve upon existing health plans that are not selling successfully. The resulting plans will be appropriately adapted to the specific human and technical resources of each centre, and thus can be implemented both in newly opened centres and those already in business for many years. Crucially, the veterinary medicine practiced in the centre must be of high quality to ensure success. The implementation of health plans also implies adopting a preventive, rather than reactive, medicine approach. Therefore, it is advisable to read this book from the beginning to properly assimilate the proposed change in philosophy, prioritising preventive medicine without abandoning therapeutic work.

Miguel Ángel Valera Arnanz was awarded his degree in veterinary science by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) in 1990, and has since dedicated his career to clinical practice. In 1993 he began offering health plans to his clients at the clinic he manages, the Centauro veterinary clinic.

Based on practical experience acquired over 20 years, primarily focused on health plans, he created Plans 4 Vets to provide advice to veterinary clinics on health plan design, as well as basic sales and marketing techniques.

He is a member of the Spanish Small Animal Veterinary Association (AVEPA), AVEPA Group for the Study of Reproduction and Paediatrics in Companion Animals (GERPAC), Madrid Small Animal Veterinary Association (AMVAC), and the Optimus management group. He has been a visiting researcher at the École Veterinaire d’Alfort (Paris), Autonomous University of Barcelona (Bellaterra), and the Complutense University of Madrid, and has specialised in surgery and reproduction in multiple hospitals. He also regularly attends national and international courses and seminars on small animals.

His areas of interest are paediatrics, diagnostic imaging (ultrasound and radiology), geriatrics, reproduction and artificial insemination, and surgery.

He is a regular contributor of articles and papers on canine reproduction and clinic management to national publications, and is author of the book Reproducción canina (Canine Reproduction). He has also contributed to the TV series “El encantador de perros” (Spanish version of “The Dog Whisperer”) with a DVD + book entitled La sexualidad (Sexuality), and has participated as a guest on various Spanish radio and television shows on animals.