If rising grocery store prices are squeezing your household budget, you’re not alone. Across the country, inflation is putting additional strain on seniors — especially those on fixed incomes. Fortunately, many Medicare Advantage plans are trying to provide a little help.
If you or a loved one qualifies, it’s worth knowing about one of the four Medicare Advantage plans available in 2024 that offers some type of financial assistance for groceries. With the Medicare grocery benefit, as it’s commonly known, you can use a prepaid flex card to buy healthy food, produce and other products from participating retailers.
“The idea behind them [non-medical] Additional benefits are that if people can take better proactive care of their health, they will face fewer health problems and costs in the future,” explained Robby Knight, CEO and co-founder of Soda. Health, a financial services company working to change the way benefits dollars are used to improve an individual’s health and reduce health disparities.” Many Medicare Advantage plans offer food benefits allow people to use their benefit allowance at a traditional grocery store or they can use them for home-delivered meals.”
Here, Knight and other experts offer answers to common questions about this added benefit to help you or a loved one eat healthier and save money at checkout.
Who is eligible for Medicare grocery benefits?
To be eligible for non-medical supplemental benefits, you must first be part of a qualified Medicare Advantage plan. And to join a Medicare Advantage plan, you must be enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B.
It also reminds that many plans only provide grocery and other non-medical supplemental benefits to people who meet certain requirements, such as having a chronic illness or being with the company for a certain period of time.
With more than 8,500 Medicare Advantage plans competing for members, many plans use the grocery benefit as their selling point and this has created a lot of confusion — especially on social media where many people are calling the grocery benefit a “scam.”
“The idea behind them [non-medical] Additional benefits are that if people can take better proactive care of their health, they will face fewer health problems and costs in the future.”
—Robby Knight, CEO and co-founder of Soda Health
“We don’t know if the people signing up for these plans know that only certain people are eligible for extra benefits like healthy groceries or if any false marketing is at play that doesn’t adequately explains eligibility,” said Gretchen Jacobson, vice president of Medicare at The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that supports independent research on health care issues and provides grants to improve health care practice and policy. health
The latter is likely given a 2022 report from the US Senate Committee on Finance that called out the Medicare Advantage industry for misleading advertising, such as advertising benefits as extras already eligible for some patients, hiding the fact that only certain groups of patients are eligible for additional benefits, such as people with chronic diseases.
You’ll want to use some caution the next time you see a plan promoting “free groceries” in your feed; always comes with some eligibility restrictions.
Which Medicare Advantage plans offer cash for groceries?
In general, Medicare Advantage plans with a grocery allowance vary by location and plan type. Data from consulting firm ATI Advisory shows CVS Health, through Aetna and other health plans, offers grocery benefits in 234 of its 2024 Medicare Advantage plans, while Elevance Health and Humana have -offer grocery benefits on about 200 of their plans.
Susan Williams, a registered nurse in Orlando, Florida, first learned about Humana’s grocery benefit while reviewing her client’s Medicare Advantage plan details. “I was taking care of an 82-year-old man with hypertension and type 2 diabetes,” she said. “This benefit has been a useful supplement to our grocery budget and a big help in maintaining his dietary needs.”
“Insurance companies typically go through third party companies to administer grocery benefits; some companies do it well with easy-to-understand instructions, while others don’t,” says Christopher Fong, CEO of Smile Insurance Group, Inc., a family-run insurance agency in Arizona. If you want to see if any plans in your area offer a grocery benefit, he recommends starting at Medicare.gov. “From there, you’ll be able to go to each plan’s website and find any information on grocery benefits at within a summary of benefits and coverage,” he said.
How does the Medicare grocery benefit work?
If you qualify for the Medicare grocery benefit, you’ll likely receive a flex card in the mail that you can use like a debit card to pay for groceries. The specific amount you receive each month depends on your plan and location. Pre-approved items also vary by plan, but typically include:
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Frozen foods
- Fresh salad kits
- Dairy products
- Healthy pantry staples like beans, canned tomato products and brown rice
- Water
- Meat and seafood
If you need help or have questions, call the number on the back of the flex card, recommends Colleen Erisey, a family caregiver in Ohio. “My mom has a Medicare Advantage plan through Anthem and gets $50 a month in healthy groceries, and I always find them very helpful when I call on her behalf — even at night after work, ” he said.
To help family caregivers and seniors navigate additional benefits, many companies like Soda Health offer different forms of support — from multi-lingual call centers to answer your questions right down to texting services reminding you to use your benefits. “While we know caregivers are heroes, we wanted to create a system that everyone could use successfully,” Knight said.
“My mom has a Medicare Advantage plan through Anthem and gets $50 a month in healthy groceries, and I always find them helpful when I call on her behalf — even at night after work.”
—Colleen Erisey, a family caregiver in Ohio
Where can you use your flex card to buy groceries?
The senior benefit card can only be used at participating grocery stores and retailers — and that could make it harder for people living in rural and urban food deserts to access their benefits. However, some plans have the option to buy groceries online and have them delivered to your door. Instacart’s Medicare Advantage plan with Alignment Healthcare, for example, includes a $50 to $100 quarterly Instacart grocery allowance and a complimentary Instacart+ membership with free delivery on qualifying orders.
However, many who live in rural areas – far from big box stores like Walmart, Meijer and Kroger – have historically struggled to use their grocery benefits. The good news is that more partnerships are expected as time goes on.
For example, in a recent Facebook post, Adams Food Center, a local family-owned grocery store in Preston, Georgia, shared that they can now fill this gap in their community: “We know that many of you have benefits through your Medicare Advantage plans for groceries and having to drive out of town to use them. If you have any Humana or UnitedHealth grocery benefits that need to be used before the end of the year, come join us!
Do the plans tell you how much of your grocery benefit you have left to use?
When it comes to supplemental benefits, Medicare Advantage plans aren’t required to tell you about any you’re eligible for that you haven’t used, nor are they required to track if you use them, where you use them. them, or what you bought. .
“Most benefit providers don’t track this data, and that means plans can’t learn how to be more member-centric or how supplemental benefit dollars are helping people take care of their health,” Knight said.
There have been some developments on this issue at the federal level. Beginning January 1, 2024, CMS requires Medicare Advantage plans to begin reporting the use and cost of additional benefits. In addition, a proposed rule would require Medicare Advantage plans to notify you mid-year (likely by mail) with information about which benefits you are eligible for and haven’t used yet.
“Summary of benefits documents can be very long and complicated for people to go through, so I think this proposed rule can be very helpful,” added Jacobson, who holds a doctorate in economics. of health. “A significant amount of federal dollars go into these benefits, and we want to see more people using them.”
In the meantime, if you or someone you care about is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, Knight recommends investigating the following questions:
- What additional benefits does your plan offer?
- How much is your allowance?
- Does your benefit allowance reload monthly or quarterly, roll over monthly or is it “use it or lose it?”
- Are you eligible for any rewards and incentives (ie, money for completing a health risk assessment, getting annual vaccinations or getting regular diabetes screenings)?
The takeaway on the Medicare grocery allowance
If you or an older loved one you care for is eligible for a grocery allowance through their Medicare Advantage plan, be sure to take advantage of it and learn about any other non-medical supplemental benefits that may be available. leave it on the table.
“We know many beneficiaries want more one-on-one help choosing a Medicare plan,” Jacobson said in reference to recent survey findings by The Commonweath Fund. “State health insurance assistance programs are really underutilized and wonderful resources for unbiased, one-on-one help.”
