News

What Are Healthy Benefit and Over-the-Counter Cards?

HBC/OTC cards are issued by national and regional health plans to allow Medicare Advantage and Medicaid participants to purchase approved products, with a growing focus on healthy food.
Common Names for HBC/OTC Cards:
  • Healthy Benefit Card
  • Food Is Medicine Card
  • OTC Card
  • Grocery Benefit Card
  • Medicaid Grocery Card

Each health plan partners with a different card processor, making acceptance complex for independent grocers.

Why NGA Partnered with Fincretive

Our partnership provides a unified solution that integrates multiple card processors with your point-of-sale (POS) system, simplifying the acceptance of HBC/OTC cards.

Data Sharing and Adjudication

To accept HBC/OTC cards, grocers must share product data with processors for adjudication. Each health plan has its own Approved Product List (APL), which dictates eligible purchases.

During a transaction, the system screens the basket against the APL to ensure compliance.

Independent grocers face challenges due to differences in product taxonomies. Our gateway approach works with all processors to minimize declines and optimize approvals.

Integration: Gateway vs. Individual

There are several ways to bring HBC/OTC benefits to your customers:

  • Gateway Integration: Working with one gateway to accept multiple types of HBC/OTC cards.
  • Individual or Semi-Integration: Working with one card processor to accept one type of HBC/OTC card.
  • Separate Terminals: Adding a separate terminal to accept one or more types of HBC/OTC cards.