February 11, 2025 Washington, D.C. – The National Grocers Association (NGA) BB #:163424, the trade association for the independent supermarket industry, announced an exciting partnership today with Fincretive.
This collaboration will provide NGA Members with a seamless, all-in-one solution to integrate healthy benefit cards (HBC) 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, NGA group VP of government relations. “Instead of navigating multiple sign-ups 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 virtually zero access to healthy benefit cards from the Medicare Advantage (MA) supplemental benefits for the chronically ill (SSBCI) food program.
Healthy benefit cards provided MA participants with a monthly grocery stipend; however, these cards are primarily accepted only at major supermarkets, leaving independent grocers excluded, despite their investments in technology and upgrades to comply with program requirements. This exclusion hurts independent grocers and their customers.
“Fincretive is excited to partner with NGA to streamline access to healthy benefit cards at independent grocers throughout the country,” said Judd Ferrer, Fincretive’s chief strategy officer. “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 further provide grocers with basic information and help them understand the steps needed to begin accepting healthy benefit cards, NGA and Fincretive launched a new website.
Later this month, NGA and Fincretive will be answering questions at the NGA booth and hosting a series of informational sessions at The NGA Show, February 23-25 in Las Vegas, to introduce grocers to this exciting, new partnership.
About NGA
NGA is the national trade association representing the retail and wholesale community grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. An independent retailer is a privately owned or controlled food retail company operating a variety of formats. The independent grocery sector is accountable for about 1.2 percent of the nation’s overall economy and is responsible for generating more than $250 billion in sales, 1.1 million jobs, $39 billion in wages and $36 billion in taxes. NGA members include retail and wholesale grocers located in every congressional district across the country, as well as state grocers’ associations, manufacturers and service suppliers. For more information about NGA, visit www.nationalgrocers.org.
About Fincretive
Fincretive brings to market a universal Medicare/Medicaid Over-the-Counter (OTC) and Healthy Benefit Card (HBC) payment solution, designed for compatibility with all point-of-sale systems and payment processors, increasing the acceptance of HBC payments in independent and ethnic grocery stores, as well as convenience stores. www.fincretive.com.
