The Corner Penthouse

In 2023 and 2024, I wrote about the extra benefits plan that was provided to me by NationsBenefits through my Aetna health insurance plan. Thanks to Aetna fucking me over with my dental plan, I had to switch insurance companies to United Healthcare. This, of course, meant a change to the extra benefit Over-the-Counter (OTC) and Healthy Food plan. While I was hoping that it would still have been with NationsBenefits (because they finally got it right in 2024), the new plan is with Solutran/Optum Financial's "Healthy Benefits Plus" (aka "Healthy Benefits+"). (Be aware that Solutran, Optum, and United Healthcare are all owned by UnitedHealth Group.) In just the first two weeks of having the plan, I ran a series of tests to determine how best to use it. Join me as I share with you what I have learned.

I actually had Healthy Benefits Plus (henceforth, HBP) before. Aetna gave it to me for the last three months of 2022 before NationsBenefits took over in 2023. At the time, the HBP card contained a barcode on the back that, when scanned at Rite Aid, Stop & Shop, etc., would act like a coupon, taking off my entire $25 monthly benefit from my purchase. This had an unintended benefit that was of GREAT use to me. When I would do my regular shopping at Stop & Shop, and bought over $25 worth of acceptable food products with taxable items on the same order, the $25 that the Healthy Foods Card would take off would be applied to the taxable items! Then I would use my SNAP (aka Food Stamps) benefit to purchase the food, and all I would have to pay in cash is just the 8.65% New York State and County tax. I could get $25 worth of taxable items for just $2.16 cash. This was a great way for me to buy soap, shampoo, laundry pods, and other taxable necessities.

The new HBP card I have from United Healthcare (henceforth, UHC) has a magnetic strip on the back and is swiped at checkout, not scanned. Also, for my plan, UHC gave me a "UCard", which is meant to be an all-in-one card with my medical information on the front, and my HBP information in very tiny text on the back under the magnetic strip. I really wish UHC would have given me two cards, as I had with Aetna: one for medical, and one for the HBP extra benefits. I'll explain why I think that would have been a better option further down. This is going to be quite a long article, though after this initial writing, there may not be many updates, unless HBP, UHC, and/or Stop & Shop make changes to improve the problems with the program and the way it is handled at checkout.

So, let's quickly go over the basics. The plan I have gives me $159 every month to "help pay for over-the-counter (OTC) products, healthy food, and utility bills". With Aetna in 2024, I was given $215, but it would have gone down to $165 in 2025; only $6 more than with UHC. As with Aetna/NationsBenefits, the money does not roll over to the next month. If it is not used up by the last day of the month, it is lost. It's important to note that the New York State SNAP (aka Food Stamps) benefit DOES roll over to the next month. Obviously, for someone like me who has both benefits, it makes most sense to use HBP first, then SNAP. This will be an important thing to remember later on when I discuss my disastrous Stop & Shop test.


As the pamphlet that I got from UHC illustrates, the HBP benefit can be used to SHOP IN-STORE at Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, and "many other local options". It operates on the S3 NETWORK, as noted by the cube "S3" logo seen in the lower left corner of this article's header image. Although there is a store finder, the list of stores in my area can be boiled down to Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Stop & Shop, Western Beef, and many mom & pop pharmacies. Obviously, the only supermarkets that accept it are Walmart (some stores are more "supermarket" than others), Stop & Shop, and Western Beef. You won't be able to do much in the way of food shopping at CVS and Walgreens (especially when you consider that HBP doesn't pay for all food), and certainly NO food shopping at mom & pop pharmacies. It would be great if HBP was accepted at Target and King Kullen, as that would open up more food shopping possibilities. If you don't have a Walmart, Stop & Shop, or Western Beef that you can easily get to, you're kinda screwed.

Of course, you can SHOP ONLINE at Walmart.com, though that is not without its own set of limitations that I will detail shortly. (Food and OTC shopping can also be done on HBP's website, but orders are handled by Walmart.com, so you might as well just order directly from Walmart.) The important thing to remember is that you have to order at least $35 worth of stuff in order to meet Walmart's free shipping requirement. Otherwise, you will have to pay the $6.99 shipping with another payment method as HBP will not pay for it. Also, you are only allowed to buy select shelf-stable food items, as those are the only items that can be shipped via postal services. HBP will not pay the $12 delivery fee to have fresh produce, refrigerated items, and frozen items brought from a Walmart store to your home. You can probably pick it up at the store, but in that case, you might as well just buy it there, too.) Also, just because there is a EBT/SNAP-Eligible Food category on Walmart's site doesn't mean that HBP will pay for all of those items. EBT/SNAP (aka Food Stamps) pays for nearly all food items, HBP only pays for select items (detailed below).

In theory, you can PAY FOR "ELIGIBLE UTILITY BILLS", but you probably won't be able to. The Aetna/NationsBenefits benefit ran on the Mastercard network, so I could use it as a credit card to pay my Optimum bill directly on Optimum's website. Although there are UHC HBP plans that DO use the Visa network (such as UHC's "Health Perks" rewards program for people with an Individual & Family ACA Marketplace plan), the one that I was given does NOT. Due to this, I can only pay utility bills that are already listed on the HBP website. If it's not listed, I can't pay it. Optimum of Long Island is not listed. Even if it were, I would have to initiate a payment on the HBP website, and then HBP would send the money to Optimum when ever they felt like it. Whereas, if I could pay it directly from Optimum's site, it would be credited to my bill instantly, allowing me to pay the bill's balance with other payment methods. Apparently, bills can be paid in-store at a Walmart MoneyCenter, but I don't know if all bills can be paid there, or only select bills. Also, the FAQ on the HBP site states that a "processing fee ($1.50 - $3.00) is associated with the bill pay vendor completing the transaction. You may use benefit dollars to cover the transaction fee, whether paying via the Solutran site and/or Walmart MoneyCenter." It's also still an inconvenience, probably not instant, and likely will not work with the way my Optimum bill is set up. So, without this HBP card working on the Visa or Mastercard networks, I can't use it to pay my utility bills.


Apparently, the UHC HBP plan also includes a FREE GYM MEMBERSHIP. Maybe it's not part of the HBP plan, but rather part of the UHC insurance plan. I can't say for sure as I haven't looked into it yet. It's not important for the subject of this article, so I won't mention it again.


If the list above is correct, vitamins are actually covered. They never were with Aetna/NationsBenefits, at least not in-store at CVS. The same with "Snacks: chips, crackers, jerky, nuts, and popcorn". The other OTC and Food items aren't a surprise, though the list fails to mention that soda, even sugar-free/diet, is not covered. Ironically, sugar-free/diet soda is statistically "healthier" than the sugar-filled fruit juices that are covered. (Note in the image below how much sodium is in a covered bottle of Gatorade Zero Sugar compared to a non-covered bottle of Cherry Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.) I get the idea behind wanting people to eat "healthy" food, but I detest that poor people are constantly having limitations and restrictions put upon them in order to use the small bit of help they are given. In this case, any food items that SNAP pays for, HBP should pay for - including sugar-free/diet soda, desserts, and ice cream. Had HBP paid for all of the food items at Stop & shop, my test there wouldn't have been such an unmitigated disaster... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Also, just to be clear, the HBP card will not pay for non-food and non-OTC items unless there is a Rewards balance (as detailed further down this article).


The first tests I ran were to confirm which stores accepted the HBP card. King Kullen was not listed on the HBP Store Finder, and sure enough, it was not accepted there to buy a pint of blueberries. I was hoping that it would work there, and that the HBP Store Finder just hasn't been updated in a while - it still lists the C-Town in Valley Stream, NY that went out of business almost two months ago - but that was wishful thinking. In my opinion, King Kullen and Target are the two biggest stores that need to accept HBP. I don't know if HBP/Solutran/Optum needs to reach out to those retailers, or vice versa.

Tests at CVS to buy Gatorade Zero Sugar and Walmart to buy strawberries were successful. That just left Stop & Shop as the final initial test. This would be the REAL test, as Stop & Shop is where I do my normal grocery shopping. Not a small amount of shopping, but usually well over $100 every two weeks. I prefer Stop & Shop because the prices are better there than most other supermarkets on Long Island, and they have the "Scan It" shopping system. As a member of the store's loyalty program, I scan my Stop & Shop card at the Scan It kiosk located at the front of the store, and get a scanner that I can use to ring up my order as I go throughout the store. This also gives me a running total of my order so I can ensure that I don't spend more than I want. I bring my own bags, so after I scan an item, I bag it up. By the time I get to the self-checkout, all I need to do is scan the barcode from the Scan It "gun" into the register, than enter my payment. Quick and easy. I can't shop like this at Walmart. Not to mention the fact that Walmart is too crowded and it takes way too long to checkout and exit the store. Walmart is not where I would prefer to do my grocery shopping. (Walmart would get people out of the store quicker if they didn't have useless "security" at the exit glancing at receipts. If someone was going to steal, they would do it in such a way that these time-wasters wouldn't even notice.)

When I shop at Stop & Shop, SNAP would pay 100% of my food order (no sales tax or bottle return fees). Aetna/NationsBenefits would pay for 99.9% of my food order, leaving me to pay loose change (probably sales tax or bottle return fees). I assumed that HBP would have, at least, worked as well as Aetna/NationsBenefits. I was really hoping that HBP would have worked in Stop & Shop as it did back in 2022, where it would be applied as a "coupon" to my order, even paying for non-food items, leaving me to only pay the tax. This is why I added two non-food items onto my "test" order: a roll of toiler paper ($1.79) and a Hot Wheels car ($1.50). Aetna/NationsBenefits covered household items, so I assumed HBP would have, as well.


Well, my HBP shopping experience at the Stop & Shop in Oceanside, NY on January 3, 2025 (at 4:31pm) was a disaster. I used the Scan It system, as I usually do, and scanned the order into the register at self-checkout. I went to pay, I selected "OTC Card" and swiped my HBP card. It gave an error message. I tried again, this time selecting "Card" as the payment method, and I got the same error message. The employee that was manning the self-checkout area couldn't get the card to work, either, even though it worked just fine a few hours earlier in Walmart for my strawberries test. She brought my order over to the human-operated register, where swiping the card still wouldn't work. She looked for a barcode on the back of the card to scan in, and when she noticed that there wasn't one, she manually typed the card number into the register. That worked, but it left a balance of around $13.72. The Hot Wheels car and toilet paper would have totaled $3.57 with tax, so I figured that the other $10.15 were food items that SNAP would have paid for, but HBP didn't.

As such, I then swiped my SNAP card to pay that $10.15. Stop & Shop's system would not accept it. The employee told me, "You should have told me you were gonna pay with food stamps. You need to pay with food stamps first, then OTC." I informed her that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to do that because SNAP/Food Stamps would pay for the ENTIRE order, leaving nothing for HBP to pay. That's putting aside the fact that HBP expires at the end of the month, while SNAP doesn't. Again, it needs to be repeated, that if HBP paid for all of the food that SNAP pays for, I would not have been in this undesirable situation.

Realizing the "Mexican Standoff" situation HBP put me in was beyond her abilities, the employee called over a more knowledgeable employee (I don't think she was a manager) who changed the amount in the register. Originally HBP was going to pay $58.08 for a $71.80 order. The employee changed the amount billed for SNAP to $14.41 and HBP to $50.49 (which is $7.59 less). I was then forced to pay $6.90 cash, when I should have only paid $3.57 cash for the toy and toilet paper with applicable sales tax. I paid $3.33 more than I should have. Granted, it's not a lot more, but it's still more than I would have paid had HBP paid for everything that SNAP would have paid for.


This $71.80 order (left receipt below) was actually a small order compared to how much food I usually buy. As seen in the right receipt below, I usually spend $100 to $150 when I do my grocery shopping at Stop & Shop every two weeks, as I need to buy enough food to last me two weeks. I don't have a car, so I have to rely on a friend who can only take me to Stop & Shop every two weeks. Otherwise, I'd be limited to only the places in walking distance from my home.


When using SNAP and Aetna/NationsBenefits in Stop & Shop, I don't have to waste time looking up dozens and dozens of food items (see above receipts) to see if they're "eligible", as Solutran wants me to do with the Healthy Benefits+ app (also for Apple). Not only would that be a major inconvenience, given the amount of items that I buy, but due to Stop & Shop's bag-as-you-go "Scan It" shopping system, I would have to have two orders: one on Scan It that HBP would cover, and a separate SNAP order that I would have to ring up at the register item by item. That's a hoop that I will NOT jump through. Also, given that Stop & Shop has a single self-checkout register exclusively for Scan It customers, I would not be able to use if it I had a separate order that needed to be scanned in item by item.

It also needs to be said that Stop & Shop is at fault here, too. Of the three stores that I ran tests in - CVS and Walmart being the other two - Stop & Shop is the ONLY one that requires SNAP to be used first, then OTC. In CVS, I had no problem buying Gatorade Zero Sugar and Cherry Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, with HBP paying first for the Gatorade and then SNAP paying second for the Coca-Cola. I only had to pay the $0.34 sales tax with cash. As an aside, I didn't have to pay a single cent when I bought a second bottle of Coca-Cola using only SNAP right afterward. The two receipts are below for comparison.


At Walmart, I had no problem buying Zero Sugar Snapple Peach Tea and Zero Sugar Mountain Lighting (store-brand Mountain Dew), with HBP paying first for the tea and then SNAP paying second for the soda. I thought I would have had to pay the $0.09 sales tax with cash, but to my surprise, it magically disappeared. I didn't have to pay a single cent. As I look at the receipt below, I see that HBP paid the $0.05 bottle deposit fee on the soda, even though it didn't pay for the soda itself.


Stop & Shop forcing customers to pay with SNAP first, then OTC, means that I can NOT use my HBP card there. Stop & Shop might as well not even advertise that they accept the card.


Since shopping in-store at Walmart, especially the closest store in Valley Stream, New York (where a worker was trampled to death on Black Friday in 2008 - a scene that was re-created in the 2023 film Thanksgiving), is not a pleasant or desirable experience, that leaves me with online shopping as the only way I can use my HBP benefit. The benefit only works on two sites: Walmart.com and HealthyBenefitsPlus.com. Orders on the HBP site are processed by Walmart, and item prices are the same on both sites, so you might as well just order directly from Walmart - especially since HBP charges sales tax and Walmart either doesn't, or charges less sales tax. Do be aware that items on Walmart.com MUST be "Shipped & Sold by Walmart". Also, placing an order at Walmart.com will instantly update your account balance on the HBP site.

Let's see what happens when I order the same items on both sites.

1x - $12.98 - Silk 6pk, Shelf-Stable Almond Milk, Unsweetened Vanilla, 1qt (Item # 130680705) (Walmart, HBP)
2x - $7.98 each - Dole 12pk, Fruit Bowls, Diced Peaches in Strawberry Gel, 4.3oz (Item # 340466314) (Walmart, HBP)
4x - $1.98 each - Great Value Strawberry Mango Powdered Liquid Drink Mix, Sugar-Free, 0.99 oz, 10 Packets (Item # 637751827) (Walmart, HBP)
Subtotal: $36.86 (on both sites)

Since the order is above Walmart's $35 minimum for free shipping, there is no shipping fee on either site. However, for these items, Walmart does NOT charge sales tax, while HBP does. So, this order I placed on January 4, 2025 cost me $36.86 on the Walmart site, but would have cost me $40.04 if placed it on the HBP site due to the addition of $3.18 sales tax. (Click on each image below to see the full cart screenshots.) Do be aware that when I placed another Walmart order on January 14th (for different items), I was charged sales tax. I do not know why sometimes tax is charged and sometimes it isn't.


So, there is no point doing any testing on the HBP site. All of my tests were done ordering food through the Walmart site. Not that there still aren't a massive amount of annoyances and obstacles that must be dealt with. As already stated, you have to order at least $35 worth of stuff in order to meet Walmart's free shipping minimum. Otherwise, you will have to pay the $6.99 shipping fee with another payment method as HBP will not pay for it. You are only allowed to buy select shelf-stable food items, as those are the only items that can be shipped via postal services. HBP will not pay the $12 delivery fee to have fresh produce, refrigerated items, and frozen items brought from a Walmart store to your home. You can probably pick it up at the store, but in that case, you might as well just buy it there, too.

Just because there is a EBT/SNAP-Eligible Food category on Walmart's site doesn't mean that HBP will pay for all of those items. EBT/SNAP (aka Food Stamps) pays for nearly all food items, HBP only pays for select items. Walmart's site will note "EBT Eligible" items as you shop, but it won't note "OTC Eligible" items. One way that you can easily find HBP-eligible items is to have both the HBP and Walmart sites open at the same time, search for items on the HBP site, then copy the item number into the search bar on Walmart's site and find it there. Of course, that's really annoying. Otherwise, you have to keep checking the Walmart checkout to see if it prompts for a second payment method, and that will let you know if all items are going to be covered by HBP or not. You'll have to take an educated guess as to what items are not covered.

For that reason, it's also best not to mix and match food/OTC and non-covered items, even though you may need the non-food items to reach the $35 free shipping minimum. If your order can not be entirely paid with HBP, or the UHC Rewards (more on that in a bit), you can NOT use PayPal to pay the remainder. Walmart doesn't allow OTC + PayPal. You would have to use a bank debit card or some other payment method to pay for what HBP doesn't.


One final annoyance of ordering on either site is that the item availability is done LIVE. If you spend too long browsing the site, items you already have in your cart can go "out of stock" if they have already been purchased by other shoppers. If an item goes out of stock on Walmart's site, it will also go out of stock on the HBP site. It's IMMEDIATELY out of stock, as in YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ORDER IT! I absolute hate that I'm not allowed to order an item and have Walmart ship it to me when they get more in stock. Every time I placed an order over the past two weeks, it felt like a race against time to find enough items to reach $35 and get that order placed before the items "disappeared". That's not an enjoyable way to shop.

All of the food items I ordered from Walmart were delivered to me within a few days by either USPS or FedEx, with one package shipped via OnTrac/Lasership (who doesn't offer e-mail delivery notifications). Although I requested that all items in each order be shipped together in one big box, my orders were usually broken down to two items per package. The items were, for the most part, packaged well. Better than how NationsBenefits used to package food items, that's for sure. That's not to say that it couldn't have been better. The box (delivered by FedEx on January 16th) containing a 10.5 oz box of Yehuda Gluten Free Matzo Style Square Crackers and a 6-pack of 16 oz bottles of Snapple Zero Sugar Apple Juice Drink should have been packaged better, as the Snapple absolutely CRUSHED the box of matzo. (The other four items in the order were shipped separately, though all arrived on the same day via FedEx and USPS.)



That said, a box containing just seven 15.6 oz cans of SpaghettiOs with Meatballs (Super Mario Bros-branded) Canned Pasta was packaged better than it had any right to be. In the very large box, which was delivered by FedEx on January 19th, each one of the seven cans were individually wrapped in paper, with more paper placed on top of the pile. I really wasn't expecting this level of care. Kudos to the Walmart warehouse in Osprey or Palmetto, Florida that shipped this package.



Just like Aetna, United Healthcare has a "Rewards" program. By completing various activities each month, members earn money that can be spent at certain retailers. Aetna's rewards program granted gift cards to be used in Best Buy, CVS, Subway, and other stores. UHC's rewards program loads the money onto the HBP card to be used in Walmart (online and in-store). (I assume it can also be used in the other stores that accept the HBP card, but Walmart would have the best selection of non-food items.) The rewards money is stored in a separate "wallet" that can be viewed on the Check Balance page, which is meant to be used on items that aren't covered by the OTC/Food benefit.


The first reward I earned was on December 17th, the day I opened my UHC account and activated my member card. I earned $5.00 for watching an introductory video. I expected that the $5 would be added to my account on January 1st, when my plan became active. Unbeknownst to me, it wasn't added until January 12th. Since UHC didn't send me an e-mail informing me that it was added, I accidentally spent it in CVS the next day when running a HBP food test.

That illustrates a HUGE PROBLEM with putting the Rewards money on the same card as the OTC/Food benefit. As has been pointed out, HBP's OTC/Food benefit doesn't pay for all food items, even though SNAP would. When you have a HBP balance in both the OTC/Food and Rewards "wallets", you will not know if any non-covered food items will be paid for with the Rewards balance, since you're not shown at checkout which HBP "wallets" your order is being paid with. This make it difficult to save up the Rewards balance (I think it carries over to the next month) and spend it at the end of the year on something you want to use it on. This is why I would prefer that the Rewards money be given as a Walmart gift card instead of being put on the HBP card.


On January 14th, I checked the UHC Rewards website to see what activities were available. There are four activities that can be completed any time within the year, and one activity that can only be completed each month. I completed the four yearly activities and the January monthly activity, giving me a total of $50 to spend.


[YEARLY]
$15 - Complete your annual wellness visit (exp. 12/31/2025) - This is for visiting my PCP and getting an annual exam.
$10 - Complete your health assessment (exp. 12/31/2025) - This is for doing an online assessment survey.
$05 - Get your flu shot (exp. 12/31/2025) - This is for getting my annual flu shot.
$10 - Connect with others (exp. 12/31/2025) - This is for calling a friend or family member and other such things.

[MONTHLY]
$10 - Get moving monthly challenge (exp. 1/31/2025) - This is for exercising 10 days out of the month. As such, it can not be completed until, at least, the 10th day of each month.

If you plan on doing one of the yearly activities after today, UHC's system will not let you input any dates ahead of the current date. So, you can either wait until after you've done one of the yearly activities to enter it into the system and get the reward, or get the reward now in advance of doing the activity. The Reward program works on the honor system, as there isn't much UHC can do to verify that you actually completed these activities. In the interest of being able to fully test this benefit for this article, I went through all of them right now, granting me a total of $50. The site said that the money would be added to my HBP card within 24 hours, but IT WAS ADDED WITHIN 10 MINUTES!


I searched for a few videos from my want list on Walmart.com that would totaled just under $50. I settled on the three items listed below. The DVD is for a friend of mine since I already have the movie on Blu-ray. I didn't know if the Rewards balance would carry over to the next month (the OTC/Food balance doesn't), so I wanted to find some things that would bring the total to as close to $50 as possible without going over. I also didn't know if Walmart would let me use PayPal to pay the difference if the order went over $50. Since they won't on a HBP food order, I suspect that they won't on a HBP/Rewards non-food order, too.

Surprisingly, there were only two or three $5 DVDs listed on Walmart's site, and none of the $3.74 DVDs that I used to see all the time in Walmart stores. Again, I could only choose items that were "Shipped & Sold by Walmart".

$21.99 - A Quiet Place: Day One (BLU-RAY)
$18.17 - Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (BLU-RAY)
$5.00 - Murder on the Orient Express (2017) (DVD)
Subtotal: $45.16 + Shipping: Free + Tax: $3.90 = Total: $49.06


The three videos arrived on January 17th via FedEx, packaged together in a ravioli-shaped mailer. A Quiet Place: Day One had a slipcover on it, which was nice. I wish Hotel Transylvania: Transformania did, too, but it is what it is.


That's it for all of the tests that I can run this month. There are really only two more tests that need to be run in February, one to see if the Rewards balance carries over to the next month, and the other to use the February Rewards money ($10) to buy a non-food item in-store in Walmart. I am ending January with a $0.94 Rewards balance and a $1.21 OTC/Food balance. I have a feeling that the $0.94 will carry over, but the $1.21 will be reset to an even $159 on February 1st.


This is where I start to wrap this article up by stating what changes need to be made to make United Healthcare's Healthy Benefits Plus program that I have work as well as NationsBenefits did in 2024.

[CHANGES UNITED HEALTH/OPTUM/SOLUTRAN NEEDS TO MAKE]
1. In addition to the S3 network, operate on the Visa or Mastercard network so that members can pay a utility bill directly from the utility company's website.
2. Allow members to buy ALL food items that SNAP/Food Stamps covers.
3. Allow members to use the benefit in King Kullen supermarkets and Target stores and website.
4. Give the Rewards money as a Walmart gift card instead of being put on the HBP card.

These were things that NationsBenefits could do in 2024 (aside from no. 3), so there is no reason why HBP couldn't do them, as well.

I have to point out that United Healthcare already does no. 1 for its "Health Perks" program, which is "a rewards program for people with an Individual & Family ACA Marketplace plan". Based on the stock image shown on that plan's Check Balance page (hosted by HealthyBenefitsPlus.com), it has a card that operates on both the S3 and Visa networks! Why doesn't UHC use this version of the card/program for plans like mine? Maybe it would if UHC got rid of the "UCard" one card for medical and extra benefits concept it uses for my plan and went with two separate cards: one for medical, and one for extra benefits. I had two separate cards with Aetna, and would love to have two separate cards with UHC.

[CHANGES STOP&SHOP NEEDS TO MAKE]
1. Allow customers to pay with OTC first, and then SNAP/Food Stamps to pay for the food items that OTC didn't. Walmart and CVS allow customers to do this, so there is no reason Stop & Shop can't, as well.

In conclusion, this HBP benefit is almost as much of an annoyance as the Aetna/NationsBenefits benefit was in 2023. That benefit got way better in 2024, and I'm hoping that by writing this article and passing it along to all of the noted companies, it will encourage them to make changes so that the HBP benefit can be better in 2026 - or even before 2025 ends.

[UPDATE - 2/1/2025]
As I expected, the $0.94 Rewards balance carried over into February, and the Food/OTC balance did not (it reset to $159). While I could, in theory, save up the Rewards balance, that would be nearly impossible to do since the Rewards balance would automatically pay for any food items that the Food/OTC balance did not. It would be accidentally spent at some point. That's why I feel that the Rewards should be given as Walmart gift cards, separate from the HBP card.


There is now a third item, "Grocery Discounts: $18.98". It says, "You have 12 offers with an available savings of $18.98". When clicked it, it takes you to a Discounts page on the HBP website. Essentially, these are coupons, though how and where to use them, I don't know. I do find it interesting that one of the lead coupons on the page is for SODA! In all of my tests, the Food/OTC benefit didn't pay for diet/sugar-free soda!


While I have a few more tests to run, I do want to note that after I published this article on January 19th, I reached out to Stop & Shop (customercare@stopandshop.com), Healthy Benefits Plus (support@healthybenefitsplus.com), and whatever contacts I could find for United Healthcare, United Health Group, Solutran, and Optum - those last four make it very hard to contact them via e-mail. Two weeks later, I did not get a single reply from any of them; not even Stop & Shop! I didn't even get a reply from HBP to my inquiry from a few days earlier asking how I could change the phone number required for the stupid two-step login process. That is horrible customer service.

[UPDATE - 2/4/2025]
Although I have not received a reply from any parties regarding the Healthy Benefits Plus program feedback I've written about in this article, I did, finally, hear back from HBP Support (support@healthybenefitsplus.com) regarding a question I had about how to change the phone number associated with the two-step log-in procedure. The reply came from healthybenefitsplus_support@solutran.com, but when I replied to that address with the information they required, the message bounced back with a "mailbox full" error.


This has now happened two days in a row, on February 3rd and 4th. I also received a second rejection e-mail saying "POC Solutran_Offshore_Email@mail.nice-incontact.com was rejected because: Inactive". I have no idea what that is all about. In any case, I re-sent my reply to support@healthybenefitsplus.com and the message went through.

[UPDATE - 2/5/2025]
I am happy to report that I did hear back from at least one party regarding this matter. On February 4th, I received a reply from Donna T. of the Stop and Shop Customer Service Team.


In short, she says that "according to the management team, it is done this way due to Store Policy and Governmental Regulations". Well, then the store policy needs to change. Simple as that. There are no "governmental regulations" that cause Stop & Shop to require SNAP/Food Stamps to be used first, then OTC, because Walmart and CVS don't require purchases to be paid for in that order, too. Of the three stores I ran tests in, it's only Stop & Shop that forces this order. Hopefully Stop & Shop will change their store policy soon. I do wonder if it's only the Oceanside store that has this policy, or if other Stop & Shop stores do, as well.

[UPDATE - 2/7/2025]
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was forced to do my grocery shopping in the Walmart store in Valley Stream, New York. It was a horrible shopping experience, though Gamestop in October 2022 still holds the record for the absolute worst shopping experience. I won't go into detail as to why, but it can be boiled down to overcrowding: too many customers, long checkout lines that went down the merchandise aisles, Walmart employees putting out new stock while customers were trying to shop, and (unbelievably) another Walmart employee who was going through the supermarket aisles with a HUGE floor buffer(!) while the aisles were already cluttered with customers and other employees doing re-stocking. The re-stocking and buffering should have been done when the store was closed, not while a large amount of customers were present.

Anyway, this shopping trip allowed me to run an even larger "OTC then SNAP" test, which further proves the Stop & Shop representative wrong about "government regulations". As seen in the receipt scan below, I had no problem paying with the HBP card first, then SNAP, then cash. HBP only paid for $85.95 of the food, then SNAP came in to pay $36.59, and I was left to pay $0.08 tax with cash. Obviously, if SNAP went first, it would have paid everything, including the tax.

You will notice that I bought 43 food products. Large orders like this - and I know some people with large families buy even more - are why it is not practical to scan each item one at a time (using the HBP app) to see what HBP would and would not pay for. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: HBP should pay for all food items that SNAP pays for.


It also needs to be noted that the $85.95 HBP paid also included my $0.94 UHC Rewards balance. HBP automatically applied the $0.94 Rewards balance towards some of the non-covered food without me being informed about it, much less asked if I wanted to use it. Due to this behavior, it is IMPOSSIBLE to save up the $10 Rewards activities each month. It would be nice to have $110 in December to use on holiday shopping ($10 each month from February to December), or even $160 if the January and yearly activities are added. Unfortunately, that is not possible as long as the Rewards program is tied to the HBP card. Again, this is why the Rewards should be given out as Walmart gift cards, separate from the HBP card.


Also, it would be nice if the Check Balance without Login page no longer included the unnecessary "Grocery Discounts" box that was just added this month. It's clutter, and makes it seem like it's an actual monetary balance, when it's just coupons.

[UPDATE - 2/10/2025]
It's that time of the month; the day when the $10 monthly UHC Reward activity is available to be done. I completed it at 11:18am Eastern, and the $10 was instantly added to my HBP OTC card. Last month, I tested it on Walmart's website (since I had $50 to spend), and this month I intended to test it in a Walmart store. Unfortunately, the only Walmart store that I am able to easily get to right now is the one in Valley Stream, New York. In my last update, I already mentioned how I was forced to do grocery shopping there this past Friday, and it was a less than pleasant experience. If you're only going into the store to buy one, or a small handful, of items, the experience is MUCH worse!

Sometime between early January and early February 2025, management decided to REMOVE both self-checkout areas, which were converted to "15 items or fewer" express lanes in mid-2024. The only self-checkout area that remains is for the elitist Walmart+ and Spark shoppers. That means that if you're only buying one or two items, you have to go onto a standard checkout line behind people who may have 50 or more items! No, thank you. Considering that the Walmart website has the same items priced LESS than in-store - something I noticed with a few different Complete Series DVD sets - it makes more sense to just order the items from Walmart's website (or elsewhere) online.

Still, for shits and giggles, I went to the Valley Stream Walmart today, and I saw nothing in terms of videos, toys, and collectibles that I wanted. I did find a few Blu-rays that were opened and missing the discs. It would totally suck if some unsuspecting customer were to spent $25 on The Wild Robot Blu-ray, with the slipcover on it, and not notice that the case underneath was opened and there was no disc inside. I left it on the shelf with the slipcover removed, so hopefully someone will notice it's been opened.

I ended up spending my $10 Rewards balance in Walgreens. I hadn't tested the HBP card in Walgreens before, as I saw no need to. I knew it would work there, and I really don't shop at Walgreens, anyway. Since I was walking past the store, I decided to see what they had in their toys and collectibles aisle.


I found a The Walking Dead Rick Grimes Ford Crown Victoria police car from Jada's "Hollywood Rides" line of 1:32-scale die-cast cars for $7.99. I added a small 3-piece heart of Russell Stover Valentine's Day chocolates to bring the total over $10 so that it would eat up the entire $10 Rewards balance. As previous tests have proven, although the Rewards balance carries over to the next month, it WILL be unintentionally spent on a Food/OTC purchase, so there is no point in trying to save it up.

[UPDATE - 2/14/2025]
Since no parties from the companies involved in this program ever responded to my e-mails giving them the constructive criticism detailed in this article, I decided to see if I could give my feedback to the executives in charge of each company. Through the Internet, I found what seem to be working e-mails for United Health's Andrew Witty (andrew.witty@uhg.com) and Optum's Heather Cianfrocco (heather.cianfrocco@optum.com). E-mails sent two weeks ago, on February 2nd, did not bounce back, so I assume both addresses are valid. That said, neither person replied to me.

Anyway, today, February 14, 202, I tried to use the HBP card at the Western Beef supermarket on Dutch Broadway in Elmont. I attempted to buy $28 and change worth of fresh fruits and vegetables, and nothing else. Although the HBP card went through, it did NOT pay for all of the fresh fruits and vegetables. There was a balance left of $5 and change, possibly for the fresh store-cut watermelon chunks. That should not have been. This HBP card is supposed to pay for fresh produce, so it should have paid for EVERYTHING. There should not have been a balance due.

After being surprised at being asked to pay a balance due, I went to use SNAP/Food Stamps to pay the balance. The register asked me to choose between Cash and Food, and then never asked me to input a PIN, so the card was not processed.  The cashier told me that, just like the Stop & Shop in Oceanside, Western Beef requires customers to use SNAP/Food Stamps first and then OTC. I informed the cashier that I cannot do it that way, as SNAP would pay 100% for the food, and the OTC would never be used. Seeing as I would not be able to pay with the HBP card, without having to also pay $5 in cash that I could not, and should not, pay, I canceled the order and left all of the food there.

Why does Stop and Shop and Western Beef not want me to pay with my HBP OTC card?!? Walmart and CVS let me use the HBP OTC first, then SNAP. There's no reason why Stop & Shop and Western Beef couldn't, as well. It seems like the only place that this HBP card can be used properly is in Walmart, both in store and online. It makes me wonder if Walmart paid off the company that runs Healthy Benefits Plus, though that doesn't explain why it also works properly in CVS. Regardless of what's going on, this HBP benefit is not very beneficial due to all of the restrictions that make it unusable. I never thought I'd miss NationsBenefits. It's a shame that United Healthcare won't use them because UHC owns Healthy Benefits Plus.

[UPDATE - 2/20/2025]
Ran a "OTC then SNAP" test on two food items in Walgreens: a bottle of Snapple (HBP covered) and some reduced Valentine's Day candy (not HBP covered). As expected, there was no problem paying with the HBP OTC card first (for the Snapple), and then SNAP/Food Stamps second (for the candy).


So, based on all of my tests in the few stores that the HBP card works in that I can get to, I have found out...

• CAN PAY WITH OTC THEN SNAP - Walmart, CVS, Walgreens.
• FORCED TO PAY WITH SNAP FIRST, THEN OTC - Stop & Shop, Western Beef.

I have no idea why I'm allowed to pay in the only method that would actually work for me in the pharmacies (and Walmart), but I can not in the two supermarkets.

Furthermore, I had no problem buying store-cut fresh watermelon chunks at the Stop & Shop supermarket in Franklin Square. So, why was that same item not covered at the Western Beef when I was there on February 14th?!? I really wish this HBP benefit would just pay for everything SNAP does and work at all of the places that accept SNAP. It would be less aggravating.

[UPDATE - 3/1/2025]
When I created my Healthy Benefits Plus account on January 1st, all I needed to do to log in was provide a username and password. About a week later, that was no longer good enough. I was then forced to have a call or text sent to my phone in order to "confirm my identity" before I would be allowed to log in. While I don't mind the two-step authorization annoyance for an important account, this HBP benefit has so many restrictions on it, no one would bother trying to steal it. It's more trouble than its worth, really.

Thankfully, I noticed that HBP provided a Quick Balance Check webpage that let me quickly check my OTC/Food and Rewards balances without the two-step authorization annoyance. All I would need to do is enter in my card number, the security code on the back, and my zip code, in order to see my balances. It should come as no surprise that Optum/Solutran decided to take away this convenience. Going to the page now shows the message: "Quick Balance Check is not available. To view your current balances, register for an account or log in. You can also check your balances by calling the number on the back of your card."


I think they got rid of the Quick Balance Check webpage because of the new HealthSafe ID login, even through I don't see any relation the two have to each other. HealthSafe ID, which will be the only way to log into the HBP website after March 25th, is the same login procedure United Healthcare uses. This means that the login credentials UHC members already have can work on the HBP site. That's a positive. Unfortunately, HealthSafe ID uses two-step authorization. So, now if I want to check my HBP balances, I have to go through this annoying process EVERY... SINGLE... TIME!

1. Log in with my username and password.


2. Have a call or text sent to my phone to give me a code.


3. Enter the code.


4. Select my HBP account, even though it is the ONLY account connected to my HealthSafe ID.


This is too much F'ing annoyance just to check a balance!

There is a somewhat better way to check your balance, but it will list the OTC/Food and Rewards balances together. If you have your OTC card info saved on Walmart's website, you can check your COMBINED balance on the Wallet page of your account. Walmart's site doesn't require two-step authorization, though you can enable it if desired.


Oh, and for those playing along at home... In the month and a half since I originally wrote this article, and reached out to members of all companies involved in this program, no one replied back. Not even just to acknowledge that they received my feedback. That's not good customer service.