Sam's Club has joined the OTC Network®, the InComm Healthcare-managed merchant community that processes billions of dollars in supplemental benefit funds annually, extending in-store benefit redemption to the warehouse club's physical locations nationwide.
The move is meaningful for grocery and foodservice operators tracking how Medicare Advantage and Medicaid supplemental benefit dollars flow into retail channels. Health plan members holding InComm Payments restricted-spend instruments — including the company's Dual Network Benefit Card™, which consolidates multiple benefit or rewards programs onto a single card — can now apply plan-sponsored funds to eligible groceries, over-the-counter medications, and wellness products at Sam's Club clubs. Cards are not accepted in Sam's Club's Scan & Go mobile checkout flow; in-lane transactions only.
Network Scale
The OTC Network® now spans more than 85,000 retail locations, a footprint that cuts across grocery, pharmacy, mass merchandise, and big-box formats, plus more than 300,000 service-provider locations such as dental care providers. Sam's Club's entry adds warehouse club volume to that mix — a format defined by bulk purchasing that can stretch benefit dollars further for cost-conscious members on fixed incomes. For Sam's Club, acceptance of restricted-spend benefit cards broadens the addressable shopper base among the Medicare Advantage and Medicaid populations, demographics the warehouse club segment has historically underpenetrated relative to traditional grocery.
"Health plans are focused on making benefits and rewards as accessible and frictionless as possible for their members," said Joe Donato, Senior Vice President and General Manager at InComm Healthcare. "Welcoming Sam's Club to our OTC Network® helps extend that access at scale, giving members additional flexibility to use their benefits at a retailer they know and trust."
Implications for Food Retail
Supplemental benefit programs have become a meaningful secondary revenue stream for food retailers as Medicare Advantage enrollment has grown. Operators and buyers tracking the supplemental-benefit grocery channel should note that the OTC Network's category eligibility rules — nutritious foods, OTC medications, wellness products — are configured individually by each participating health plan, which means Sam's Club's eligible product mix will vary by the specific benefit program a member carries.
For large-format retailers and their foodservice or prepared-foods operations, the OTC Network integration is primarily a front-end payment story, but it carries indirect daypart and category implications: members who can now use benefit cards on bulk staples at Sam's Club may shift grocery spend away from traditional supermarkets or pharmacy-format competitors already on the network. That competitive pressure is part of a broader retail foodservice and grocery convergence trend that has accelerated as supplemental benefit volumes have scaled. InComm Payments operates from its Atlanta headquarters and reports more than 525,000 points of retail and online distribution globally.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
