If you pay your associate dentists a commission, memberships raise a fair question: when a member is on a discounted fee schedule, how does the dentist get paid? The short answer is that nothing changes. Your practice software already works out commission from the fee that applied to each item, and a membership tier is simply one more fee schedule. This guide is the companion to How to Set Up Good-Better-Best Fee Schedules in Your Practice Software — read that one first if you have not set the schedules up yet.
It is the same as any other patient
Think about how an associate is already paid. The dentist treats a patient, the item is recorded against a fee schedule — your full fee, a health-fund schedule, a pensioner rate — and at the end of the period your software reports the fees they produced. Commission is a percentage of that.
A membership tier is just another schedule in that list. When you assign a member their tier's schedule, every item they have is recorded at that schedule's fee. So the dentist's commission is worked out on the membership fee, in exactly the same report, with no separate process to run.
How the commission is worked out
Because the tier schedule carries a real fee on every item, the dentist earns their usual percentage of whatever that fee is. The discount lowers the fee, so it lowers the commission in proportion — but it never removes it, as long as the schedule is not set to $0.00.
Here is the same crown, implant and included clean, paid to a dentist on a 40% commission:
Item | Standard fee | Member fee (tier schedule) | Dentist commission @ 40% |
|---|---|---|---|
Crown (613) | $1,800 | $1,620 | $648 |
Implant (6xx) | $4,500 | $4,050 | $1,620 |
Scale & clean (114) — included in plan | $130 | $110 | $44 |
Fees and commission rate are examples. The dentist is paid their usual percentage of whatever fee the tier schedule recorded — which is exactly why those fees must never be $0.00.
The included clean is the one to watch. The patient pays nothing for it on the day because their membership covers it, but it is still recorded at the schedule fee — $110 here, not zero — so the dentist is paid the $44 for doing it. The membership subscription is what funds that.
The subscription is separate from production
Keep two things apart. Production is the treatment the dentist delivers, recorded at the tier schedule and paid by commission as above. The subscription is the weekly or monthly fee the member pays for the plan; that sits in SmilePass as practice income and pays for the included services and the discounts. Dentists are paid commission on production, not on the subscription — the subscription is what makes the discounted production affordable.
Decide this with your dentists up front so everyone understands where the money comes from: the patient's subscription funds the gap, and the dentist is still paid for every item they perform.
Reporting in your practice software
Your commission or production report already breaks figures down by fee schedule — it has to, so health-fund work can be separated from full-fee work. Membership tiers appear there the same way. Run the report as you always do and you will see each dentist's production against each tier, with commission calculated from it. There is nothing new to build; the membership schedules simply show up as their own lines.
Tips and common mistakes
Never set a fee to $0.00. A zero fee pays the dentist zero commission. Discount the schedule, but always leave a real fee on every item.
Separate subscription from production. Pay commission on treatment delivered, not on the membership subscription, and make sure your reports do not mix the two.
Agree the schedules first. Because the tier fees set what each dentist earns, walk through them with your dentists before you go live.
Use one schedule per tier. It keeps the reporting clean — you can see exactly what each tier produced for each dentist.
Reconcile regularly. Check that the subscription income for the included services roughly covers the commission you pay on them, and adjust the plan price or the schedule if it does not.
One process, members included
Paying dentists on members is not a new system bolted onto your practice. It is the same fee schedule, the same commission report and the same pay run — members are just another schedule in the mix. Set the tier fees sensibly, keep the subscription separate, and your existing process does the rest.
See how SmilePass fits in
SmilePass runs the memberships and the subscription billing; your practice software runs the fee schedules and the commission. Together they let you offer member pricing without changing how your dentists are paid. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to change how I pay my dentists?
No. Members are recorded against their tier's fee schedule, and your software calculates commission from that fee in the same report you already use.
Are dentists paid less on members?
Proportionally, yes — the discounted fee is lower, so the commission on it is lower. But they are still paid for every item, and the membership subscription helps fund the included services.
Do dentists get a share of the membership subscription?
Usually not. The subscription is practice income that pays for the discounts and included care; dentists are paid commission on the treatment they deliver. Agree your own approach with your team.
What happens if an item is set to $0.00?
The dentist earns no commission on it. Always leave a real, discounted fee on the tier schedule so included services still pay the dentist.
Written by Cristian Dunker, BDS, dentist (oral rehabilitation), with MBAs in Marketing (Sociesc-Brazil), Project Management (FGV-Brazil) and Finance (Bond - QLD).
