Meet Shepherd Wellness Plans: Predictable Revenue & Cleaner Workflows

Preventive care is the backbone of most general practices. It stabilizes revenue between busy seasons, and it’s where you catch disease early instead of managing it late.

Further, it builds long-term client relationships.

And yet, the way many clinics manage wellness plans makes preventive care harder than it needs to be. (Think spreadsheets, separate billing platforms, manual reconciliation, extra steps at checkout…)

When the most common appointment on your schedule creates extra administrative work, something’s off. Preventive care is supposed to be your most predictable appointment type. But when wellness plans live outside your PIMS, even routine visits pick up friction.

Wellness plans, built into Shepherd

That’s why we’re launching Wellness Plans built directly into Shepherd, so preventive care supports your workflow instead of complicating it. The native Wellness Plan feature lives right inside your PIMS.

Clinics can:

• Create customizable wellness plans
• Enroll patients directly from the patient profile
• Manage recurring payments via Shepherd Pay
• Automatically renew plans
• Track usage (used vs. remaining services)
• Use mass communication tools to promote plans

This feature is available to clinics enrolled in Shepherd Pay, since recurring billing and plan revenue flow through integrated payments.

Why wellness plans often stall (even when clinics believe in them)

Wellness plans are not new. In veterinary medicine, they’re structured preventive care programs that bundle routine services into a recurring payment model, usually monthly.

Instead of clients paying for each exam, vaccine, or diagnostic at the time of service, they enroll their pet in a plan that spreads the cost of preventive care across the year.

Most owners and managers already understand the financial logic:

• Predictable recurring revenue
• Higher annual client value
• Increased retention
• Improved compliance

So why don’t more clinics run them confidently? Because the operational friction adds up. Maybe you’re thinking, “We already use another system for wellness plans.”

That’s fair. The question becomes: Is it connected to your medical record and invoice workflow?

When wellness plans live outside your PIMS:

• Staff toggles between systems.
• Plan inclusions aren’t clearly visible in the SOAP.
• Charges require manual adjustments.
• Reporting requires exporting and comparing multiple data sources.

When plans live inside your PIMS:

• Usage tracking is easier.
• Enrollment happens at the point of care.
• Payments and documentation stay aligned.
• Setup tools are designed to reduce repetitive configuration.

If you’re already thinking about restructuring or refining your plans, this can be a clean reset.

Who benefits most from a better system

This launch is designed primarily for independently owned clinics, as well as clinics that are already considering or implementing wellness plans.

It’s built for and benefits real roles inside the clinic, including:

Practice Owner: Predictable cash flow. Higher annual client value. Stronger retention.

Practice Manager: One system. No tool sprawl. Clear payment collection.

Associate DVM: Clear standard-of-care structure visible in the record.

Tech / CSR: One-click enrollment. Cleaner financial conversations. Clear plan indicators in the patient profile.

Wellness plans inside Shepherd extend what already makes the platform strong:

• Workflow-first SOAP medical records
• Automatic charge capture
• Integrated payments via Shepherd Pay
• Connected communication tools

It’s the same second-nature software philosophy applied to preventive care and predictable revenue. Because the real question isn’t: “Should we offer wellness plans?” It’s: “How do we run them without adding friction to an already full day?”

Why wellness plans matter right now

Industry benchmarking data from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) show routine well visit volumes have decreased in recent years after pandemic highs, creating more variability in preventive care revenue.

However, 81.6% of dog owners and approximately 76% of cat owners said routine checkups and preventive care were the reason for their last visit, as reported by the AVMA.

Additional studies show that many pet owners underestimate lifetime care costs, and affordability remains a key factor in treatment decisions, particularly for preventive diagnostics and dental care. Spreading costs into predictable monthly payments reduces the “single-visit sticker shock” that can delay recommended care.

Recurring revenue models also generate more predictable cash flow for practices because a portion of future income is already contracted rather than dependent solely on same-day transactions.

Wellness plans create stability by encouraging ongoing preventive engagement through elevating clients’ perceived value of care. They support earlier detection, stronger client relationships, and a more sustainable preventive care model. But if the operational side of managing those plans creates friction for your team, adoption stalls.

If you’d like to see what enrollment, usage tracking, and recurring billing look like inside a real appointment workflow, we’re happy to walk through your most common visit type.