What Wellness Plans Do
Wellness Plans allow practices to offer clients a defined package of products and services at a set price.
Plans can be built around a specific list of items a patient will need over the plan period, or configured as a Membership Mode plan that automatically applies discounts across eligible services without enumerating every item.
Once a client enrolls, Shepherd tracks item usage, surfaces plan details throughout the clinical workflow, and supports payment collection through Shepherd Pay.
Navigate to: Admin > Wellness Plans
We have temporarily paused Wellness Plan activations.
What You Need to Know
Shepherd Pay must be enabled before Wellness Plans are available.
If Wellness Plans don't appear in Admin, confirm Shepherd Pay is active and that your role includes the required permissions.
Shepherd charges a 5% administration fee on Wellness Plan revenue. The administration fee applies to the plan price only — the enrollment fee, taxes, and surcharges are excluded. It is collected when clients pay, not when a plan is invoiced or enrolled.
Financing is configured separately from wellness plans.
Wellness plans handle care packages and item tracking. Payment plans and recurring billing are managed through Recurring Payment Plans and are not part of wellness plan setup.
Access and Permissions
Navigate to: Admin > Wellness Plans
Wellness Plans require all of the following to be accessible:
Shepherd Pay is enabled (Admin > Clinic Settings > Financial Settings)
Your role includes at least one Wellness Plan permission (Admin > Users/Roles)
Three permissions control access independently — roles can be granted any combination.
Navigate to: Admin > Users > Roles > Edit / +Add New Role
They are located under different tabs when editing a role's permissions. See the table below.
Permission | Ability | Location |
Wellness Plan Settings | Create and edit plans | Admin tab, at the bottom |
Wellness Plan Enrollment Pricing (Update) | Reopen enrollment invoices and adjust plan fee and enrollment fee pricing | Invoices tab, at the bottom |
Wellness Plan Enrollment | Enroll plans only, no cancellation | Records tab, at the bottom |
Wellness Plan Enrollment Management | Pause, resume, extend or cancel plans | Records tab, at the bottom |
Wellness Plan Analytics | Reporting access | Reports tab, at the bottom |
Admins and practice owners have all selected by default. All other roles must be granted permissions explicitly.
Plan Types
Shepherd supports two types of wellness plans. The right choice depends on how your practice structures its care programs.
Traditional plans require each included product or service to be listed individually with quantities and pricing. They give practices precise control over what's covered, at what cost, and in what quantity. Use traditional plans when you need to define exactly what a client gets.
Membership Mode plans don't enumerate individual items. Instead, they apply a patient-level discount automatically to eligible services whenever the patient is seen. They're designed for concierge or membership-style programs where a blanket discount applies broadly rather than to a specific item list. Use Membership Mode when your practice offers an open-access membership benefit.
Note that Membership Mode is permanent — once it is enabled on a plan, it cannot be disabled. See Wellness Plans: Creating and Managing Plans for full configuration details.
Key Rules
These rules apply across all wellness plans regardless of type.
Only one active wellness plan is allowed per patient at a time. A patient must complete or be canceled out of their current plan before enrolling in a new one.
Item edits made after a plan is saved apply only to newly enrolled patients. Patients already enrolled are not affected.
Deactivating a plan stops new enrollments but does not remove plan access for currently enrolled clients.
Enrollment is not official until the client signs. The recorded enrollment date is the date of signature, regardless of the start date selected.
Canceling an enrollment is immediate and permanent. The patient loses access to remaining plan benefits at the moment of cancellation.
Administration Fee
Shepherd charges a 5% administration fee on Wellness Plan revenue. The administration fee is calculated on the plan price only — the enrollment fee, taxes, surcharges, and discounts are excluded.
Administration fee is tied to actual payments received, not to when a plan is created or invoiced:
If a client hasn't paid yet, no administration fee is owed.
If payments come in over time, the administration fee is collected on each payment as it's received.
Refunding or voiding a payment automatically reverses the administration fee on that amount.
If a plan is canceled and the client is not refunded, the administration fee on payments already received stands — the clinic retains that revenue, so the fee remains.
Shepherd bills the administration fee quarterly through Maxio. No setup or action is required from clinic staff.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't I see Wellness Plans in Admin?
Wellness Plans in Admin require Shepherd Pay to be enabled and your role to include at least one Wellness Plan permission. Confirm both in Admin > Clinic Settings > Financial Settings and Admin > Users/Roles. Admins and practice owners have wellness plan permissions by default — other roles need to be granted access explicitly.
What is the difference between a wellness plan and a recurring payment plan?
A wellness plan defines a package of products and services a patient can access over the plan period. Clients pay a plan price at enrollment to access those benefits.
A recurring payment plan is a billing tool used to collect an outstanding balance in scheduled installments over time. It is not tied to service packages and does not grant access to specific items.
The two features can be used together but are set up and managed independently. See Recurring Payment Plans for details.
Does Shepherd charge clinics a fee for using Wellness Plans?
Yes. Shepherd charges a 5% administration fee on Wellness Plan revenue, calculated on the plan price only. The enrollment fee, taxes, and surcharges are not included.
The administration fee is collected when clients pay and billed quarterly through Maxio automatically.