Bracken Killpack
WSDA Executive Director

Over the last few years, WSDA has made significant progress toward a simple but ambitious goal: lowering the cost of membership while increasing the value members receive from their association. That progress is showing up in meaningful ways. Membership is growing, retention is improving, and only about 15% of WSDA’s total revenue now comes from membership dues.

These changes are happening because members chose to invest in their association. Thank you to every member who has joined L&I Advantage, attended PNDC, purchased or renewed insurance through Washington Dentists’ Insurance Agency, or subscribed to ComplyBetter. When you participate in WSDA programs, you are not just purchasing a valuable product or service, you are helping build a stronger, more sustainable association.

Because members are investing in these programs, WSDA can make new investments in you. That includes brand new resources like free, confidential mental health support through First Choice Health and free student loan counseling through The Institute of Student Loan Advisors (TISLA). We are also continuing to invest more into advocacy, continuing education, compliance support, and practice resources. The more successful our non-dues revenue programs become, the more we can do for Washington dentists while continuing to bring down the cost of being a member.

Our first phase of aggressive non-dues revenue growth focused on creating new programs and services exclusively for Washington dentists: ComplyBetter and L&I Advantage. ComplyBetter gives dental offices practical support for managing evolving compliance obligations. L&I Advantage helps practice owners navigate workplace injury claims, access return-to-work support, and reduce the long-term premium impacts that can follow a workers’ compensation claim.

Now we are beginning our next phase: extending these successful WSDA programs beyond our current membership.

WSDA leadership is currently in discussions with multiple health care associations in our state about expanding L&I Advantage into other areas of health care. This expansion benefits WSDA in several important ways. A larger workers’ compensation premium base allows the program to better absorb large claims, manage risk more effectively, and increase the dependable non-dues revenue returned to WSDA. Diversifying the types of health care employers participating in the program may also strengthen long-term performance. In 2027, L&I Advantage will become WSDA’s largest single source of non-dues revenue. Expanding it into other health care sectors will help drive even more sustainable growth.

L&I Advantage expansion is also good for our potential partners. The program can become a highly valued member benefit for those other health care associations. They can better retain members by offering professional claims support, return-to-work resources, and financial support at no additional cost beyond membership in their associations. The symbiotic relationship can strengthen their associations while simultaneously strengthening WSDA.

While our plans for L&I Advantage expansion are focused within Washington state, our focus for ComplyBetter expansion is peer state dental associations across the country.

WSDA is in active discussions with several state dental associations about selling ComplyBetter subscriptions to dentists in other states through partnerships with these peer associations. We expect to announce formal partnerships with a few associations later this year. Expanding ComplyBetter into more states gives us scale, allowing us to invest in making the product better, improving the user experience, and adding new functionality in the years ahead.

This phase of ComplyBetter expansion also strengthens organized dentistry. WSDA is stronger when it is part of a healthy, sustainable Tripartite membership model. Helping other state dental associations generate more non-dues revenue by offering high-quality compliance support to their members is not only good business; it is good for the entire profession.

In previous columns, I have written about the flywheel effect. Real transformation rarely comes from one dramatic decision. It comes from steady, repeated pushes in the same direction until momentum builds. That is what is happening at WSDA.

More members use WSDA programs. Those programs generate non-dues revenue. That revenue funds better member benefits, stronger advocacy, and lower membership costs. Lower costs and greater value bring more dentists into organized dentistry. More members create more strength, more influence, and more opportunity to serve.

The flywheel is moving. Our next phase of non-dues revenue growth will push it even faster.