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Medicare Advantage OTC card hack-ette

March 26, 2026 05:14PM
During enrollment, when they have all of the seminars everywhere, agents tend to tout the OTC card and the ability to buy food with it. As anyone who has fallen for that - like me - knows, rare are the people who can use the card for groceries. There are very specific requirements and, unless you have one foot in the grave, the card cannot be used for groceries. It will still cover OTC items such as vitamins, cold medicine, etc.

So I found a little hack. Walgreens often has deals where you can get cash back in the form of a coupon at the register to be used on anything in a subsequent trip with the only minimum purchase being the value of the coupon. Buy stuff with the OTC card that has deals like this. What to do with the stuff? I don't know. Donate it, give it away, resell it on eBay, whatever. Anyway, the point is to get those cash back coupons at the register or on your Walgreens card so you can turn around on your next trip and buy what few groceries are offered there such as cereal, coffee, batteries, eggs, bread.

The lies they tell about getting food with the card is a whole other rant but you can still make it work in a small way with the register coupons, occasionally.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2026 07:06PM by sestrahelena.
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April 04, 2026 03:47PM
My husband has an OTC card with his United Health Care Medicare Advantage Plan. $45.00/month. This particular card is for folks with chronic diseases such as diabetes (he has) and cardiac conditions. This card *DOES* allow him to purchase groceries. I know. I'm the one who gets them for him. Bread, eggs, navel oranges, cereal, sugar-free jelly, etc. Many, many food items. BUT>>>>this is a VERY QUIRKY card when it comes to vitamins and supplements!!! It DOESN'T COVER many of the common supplements, such as cinnamon capsules or glucosamine. It did cover his Vit B12 tabs. It covers metamucil powder. This card is great for foods but not so great for supplements!
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April 04, 2026 10:11PM
Both Anthem and Humana allow for the purchase of groceries. Anthem had $50/month. Humana had $125/month accumulative for either groceries and OTC stuff. Anthem had $150/ quarter for OTC.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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April 06, 2026 02:22PM
@whosear wrote:

Both Anthem and Humana allow for the purchase of groceries. Anthem had $50/month. Humana had $125/month accumulative for either groceries and OTC stuff. Anthem had $150/ quarter for OTC.
Are either Anthem or Humana picky about which vitamins/supplements are allowed? I might be interested in looking into one of those for my hubby next year if they allow all the usual vitamins/supplements, which this United Health Care card he currently has does not, as we discovered it only allows a few, but does allow lots of food!
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April 06, 2026 10:53PM
They change the rules each year - after open enrollment. So they all might be completely different by the next time you can change.
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April 08, 2026 03:07PM
@sestrahelena wrote:

They change the rules each year - after open enrollment. So they all might be completely different by the next time you can change.
Yes! Excellent point! I need to remember that come next October!
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