NationsBenefits and Acme Fresh Market Expand Grocery and OTC Wellness Benefits Access Across Ohio
NationsBenefits, a healthcare fintech and benefits technology platform, has announced a new retail network integration with Acme Fresh Market, a grocery retailer serving communities throughout Ohio. The partnership is designed to make it easier for eligible health plan members to purchase approved groceries, over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare products, and other essential wellness items using their NationsBenefits Benefits Mastercard® Prepaid Flex Card at participating Acme Fresh Market locations.
The collaboration combines NationsBenefits’ benefits payment technology with Acme Fresh Market’s retail network to improve access to everyday necessities that support better health and well-being. Through this integration, eligible members can use their allocated health plan benefits to purchase approved items at checkout, helping them access nutritious food and essential healthcare products more conveniently.
The initiative reflects the growing recognition that access to healthy food and basic wellness products plays an important role in improving health outcomes, particularly for individuals managing chronic conditions and those facing financial barriers to essential goods.
Real-Time Checkout Technology Simplifies Benefit Access
The integration is powered by NationsBenefits’ Basket Adjudication Service (BAS), a technology solution that determines whether individual products in a shopping basket qualify under a member’s health plan benefit allowance.
When an eligible customer uses their NationsBenefits Flex Card at checkout, the BAS technology evaluates the items in the transaction in real time. The system identifies eligible products and automatically applies the available benefit to qualifying purchases. This process helps customers understand which items are covered by their plan while making the payment experience more straightforward.
By performing eligibility checks at the item level, the technology is designed to reduce confusion and eliminate unnecessary complications during checkout. Customers can purchase approved grocery products, OTC health supplies, and other eligible wellness essentials without having to determine the eligibility of every item manually.
The integration also helps connect healthcare benefits with everyday shopping habits. Rather than requiring members to navigate separate systems to access their allowances, the partnership enables them to use their benefits directly at participating grocery stores.
For health plan members, this approach can make essential purchases more accessible and convenient. It also gives healthcare organizations a practical way to connect benefit programs with the products and services that support members’ daily health needs.
Supporting Healthier Communities Through Nutritious Food
Access to nutritious food remains an important public health concern across Ohio. According to the information provided by NationsBenefits, more than 1.82 million Ohio residents, representing approximately 15.3% of the state’s population, experienced food insecurity in 2024.
Food insecurity can affect an individual’s ability to maintain a balanced diet, purchase necessary groceries, and manage ongoing health conditions. When households struggle to afford nutritious food, they may face greater challenges in maintaining healthy lifestyles and following dietary recommendations provided by healthcare professionals.
Research has associated food insecurity with an increased risk of chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. These connections highlight the importance of addressing food access as part of broader healthcare and community wellness strategies.
The NationsBenefits and Acme Fresh Market partnership aims to help eligible members overcome some of these barriers by connecting healthcare benefit allowances with approved food and wellness purchases. Through the Flex Card program, members can use their available benefits to obtain qualifying products at participating stores.
Michael Parker, Co-CEO of NationsBenefits, emphasized the importance of making nutritious food more accessible to people who need it.
According to Parker, improving community health begins with access to nutritious food. He explained that introducing Flex Card acceptance and BAS technology at Acme Fresh Market locations will make it easier for Ohio members, particularly those managing conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, to obtain fresh groceries and wellness products.
This approach supports the concept of food as medicine, which recognizes that nutrition can play an important role in preventing disease, managing chronic conditions, and supporting overall health. By integrating grocery access into healthcare benefit programs, organizations can help members address everyday needs that influence their long-term well-being.
Acme Fresh Market Enhances the Customer Shopping Experience
For Acme Fresh Market, the integration represents another step toward improving convenience for customers across its Ohio locations. The retailer has built its customer experience around accessible grocery shopping, friendly service, and efficient checkout operations.
By accepting NationsBenefits Flex Cards at all registers, participating Acme Fresh Market stores can provide eligible customers with a more convenient way to use their healthcare benefits when purchasing approved products.
Katie Swartz, Vice President of Marketing at Acme Fresh Market, said the company continually looks for opportunities to improve the shopping experience. She expressed the retailer’s enthusiasm for the partnership and highlighted how accepting NationsBenefits cards at every register complements the services offered through Acme’s Hometown Pharmacies.
The collaboration brings together grocery retail services and healthcare benefit technology in a way that supports customers’ everyday needs. Members can shop for eligible items within the familiar retail environment while using the benefits provided through their participating health plans.
The integration may also help increase awareness of the ways healthcare benefits can support nutrition and wellness. By making eligible purchases part of a regular grocery shopping trip, the partnership can help members incorporate their available benefits into their daily routines.
Purchasing Data Provides Insights Into Community Health Needs
Beyond simplifying payments, the NationsBenefits Flex Card program can generate valuable information about how members use their benefits. Each transaction produces de-identified purchasing data at the ZIP code level, offering health plans additional visibility into benefit utilization across the communities they serve.
This information can help healthcare organizations better understand patterns in members’ access to eligible groceries and wellness products. By examining aggregated purchasing trends, health plans may identify differences in benefit use between communities and recognize areas where additional outreach or support could be beneficial.
For example, community-level purchasing insights may help organizations evaluate whether members are accessing available food benefits, understand where utilization is limited, and identify potential gaps in access to nutritious food and essential wellness products.
When interpreted alongside other appropriate community and healthcare information, these insights can support more targeted population health strategies. Health plans can use such information to assess the effectiveness of benefit programs, improve member engagement, and develop initiatives that respond more closely to local needs.
The de-identified nature of the data is an important element of this approach. Rather than relying on personally identifiable purchasing records for these community-level insights, the program provides aggregated geographic information that can help organizations evaluate broader patterns.
These capabilities illustrate how benefits payment technology can serve purposes beyond processing transactions. By connecting retail purchasing activity with healthcare benefit programs, NationsBenefits aims to help health plans make more informed decisions about how they allocate resources and support members.
Advancing Social Drivers of Health Initiatives
The partnership also aligns with NationsBenefits’ broader mission to address Social Drivers of Health (SDoH). These drivers include the social and economic conditions that influence people’s ability to maintain good health, such as access to nutritious food, affordable essential products, and community-based resources.
Healthcare organizations increasingly recognize that medical services alone cannot address every factor affecting health outcomes. Individuals may need support with food access and other everyday necessities to manage chronic conditions effectively and maintain their well-being.
By combining retail access, benefit payment technology, and purchasing insights, NationsBenefits seeks to help health plans connect members with resources that support their broader health needs.
The BAS platform can also support healthcare organizations interested in developing food-as-medicine initiatives, improving member engagement, and strengthening population health programs. Integrating these capabilities into retail environments provides a direct connection between healthcare benefits and the products members purchase in their daily lives.
For Acme Fresh Market, the collaboration expands payment convenience for eligible customers while reinforcing the retailer’s focus on customer service and community access.
Improving Access to Everyday Health Essentials
The NationsBenefits and Acme Fresh Market integration demonstrates how healthcare technology and grocery retail partnerships can help make health-related benefits more practical and accessible. By enabling eligible members to use their Flex Cards for approved grocery, OTC healthcare, and wellness purchases, the collaboration connects benefit programs with essential products available in local stores.
The real-time eligibility verification provided by Basket Adjudication Service is designed to simplify checkout, while de-identified ZIP code-level purchasing insights can help health plans better understand community benefit utilization.
As food insecurity and chronic disease continue to present challenges for communities, initiatives that improve access to nutritious food and essential wellness products may contribute to broader efforts to address health disparities.
NationsBenefits and Acme Fresh Market aim to make everyday shopping more convenient for eligible Ohio residents while supporting healthcare organizations in their efforts to improve member experiences and long-term health outcomes.
Healthcare plans and organizations interested in learning more about NationsBenefits’ Basket Adjudication Service, food-as-medicine strategies, member engagement solutions, and population health initiatives can visit the NationsBenefits website for additional information.
Source Link:https://www.businesswire.com/
