NGA, Fincretive Team to Provide Healthy Benefit Card Access for Indies' Customers
The National Grocers Association (NGA), the trade association for the independent supermarket industry, has partnered with Fincretive to provide NGA’s members with a seamless, all-in-one solution to integrate healthy benefit cards (HBCs) and over-the-counter (OTC) cards into their point-of-sale (POS) systems.
“This partnership simplifies healthy benefit card acceptance by easily connecting NGA members to all major card processors through their POS providers,” said Stephanie Johnson, group VP of government relations at Washington, D.C.-based NGA. “Instead of navigating multiple signups and system updates, independent grocers can use Fincretive’s gateway solution to accept the majority of healthy benefit and OTC cards.”
Over the past few years, NGA members have had almost no access to HBCs from the Medicare Advantage (MA) supplemental benefits for the chronically ill food program. The cards provide MA participants with a monthly grocery stipend, but they are primarily accepted only at major supermarkets, so indies have been excluded, despite their investments in technology and upgrades to comply with program requirements.
“Fincretive is excited to partner with NGA to streamline access to healthy benefit cards at independent grocers throughout the country,” noted Judd Ferrer, chief strategy officer at Boise, Idaho-based Fincretive. “Our platform modernizes OTC/HBC processing, so grocers don’t need to sign up with multiple card processors or have multiple terminals to process transactions. This partnership benefits both grocers and customers alike, fostering widespread acceptance of healthy benefit cards.”
To offer grocers basic information and help them understand how to begin accepting healthy benefit cards, NGA and Fincretive have launched a new website. NGA and Fincretive will also answer questions at the NGA booth and host a series of informational sessions at The NGA Show, which will take place Feb. 23-25 in Las Vegas.
According to NGA, the independent grocery sector accounts for about 1.2% of the nation's overall economy and is responsible for generating $250 billion-plus in sales, 1.1 million jobs, $39 billion in wages and $36 billion in taxes.
