Millions of Medicare Advantage members carry a supplemental spend card which includes Health Benefits that can only be spent at stores participating in the S3 network. These are Medicare Advantage members with pre-funded monthly or quarterly allowances for eligible food and OTC health products, and they actively use the Healthy Benefits+ app to find participating stores before they shop. If your store is not in the network, you are invisible to that customer base entirely. Learning how to accept Health Benefit is one of the most straightforward ways to open your store to a large, recurring customer segment that is already looking for places to spend.
What the S3 Network Is and Why It Matters for Your Store
The S3 network is a proprietary payment network built specifically for supplemental health benefit programs, operated by Optum Financial through its Healthy Benefits+ platform. It functions similarly to Visa or Mastercard in that it connects cardholders to participating retailers at the point of sale, but it is designed exclusively for directed health benefit spending.
What this means practically for your store is that customers with Health Benefit cards can only spend their benefit allowance at retailers that are enrolled in the S3 network. Their cards will not work anywhere else. According to Optum, over 95% of U.S. residents live within 5 miles of a participating S3 retailers, including major names like Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, grocery chains, and pharmacies. Enrolling in the S3 network puts your store on that map.
Who Is Carrying These Cards?
Health Benefit cardholders are primarily Medicare Advantage (Part C) enrollees. Their benefit allowances reload monthly or quarterly, making them recurring customers for stores that accept the card. Many of these same customers also carry SNAP EBT cards, meaning a store that accepts both captures a significantly larger share of their total food and health spending.
What Your Store Needs to Accept Health Benefit Cards
Before you can accept Health Benefits at your store, you will need to configure your payment environment to support this payment type, which differs from a standard credit card transaction. The good news is that CDE provides a single payment device capable of processing Health Benefit Cards alongside other payment types, including EBT and Credit and Debit.
Requirements for acceptance include:
An S3-certified payment terminal:
Your Payment terminal or POS system must support S3 network transaction routing. Health Benefit Cards are magstripe requiring no PIN, adjudicated, processed, and settled through the S3 network.
Item eligibility handled at the network level:
Unlike SNAP, you do not need to configure eligible item lists in your own POS. The S3 network manages product eligibility centrally and adjudicates in real time at checkout. Your terminal communicates with the network during the transaction, and the network determines what is covered based on the member’s specific plan.
Split tender capability:
Health Benefit cards cover only eligible items within a transaction. If a customer’s cart includes both eligible and ineligible items, the terminal needs to process the eligible portion through S3 and allow the customer to pay the remainder by another method. This is the same split tender scenario common with SNAP EBT, and a properly integrated POS handles it in a single checkout flow.
How to Accept Health Benefits: The Setup Process
Accepting Health Benefits through the S3 network doesn’t require approval from a government agency and unlike SNAP, there is no federal authorization process. The S3 network supports over 13 million United Healthcare and other healthcare provider members, making it a significant opportunity for retailers. Enrollment for payment acceptance is handled directly through CHEXIT by CDE, which processes Health Benefit transactions through the Optum Payments Network via S3.
Here is how the setup process works for retailers:
- Contact Us: Reach out to a Health Benefits expert to confirm that your store type and location are eligible for S3 network enrollment. Most grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, and general merchandise retailers that already sell food and health products (OTC) qualify.
- Review your existing terminal setup: CHEXIT by CDE will assess whether your current payment terminal supports S3 transaction routing. . In most cases, retailers already accepting SNAP EBT are close to ready with minimal changes needed..
- Complete enrollment and configuration: Your processor, CDE, handles enrollment with the S3 network on your behalf. This includes configuring your terminal to recognize S3 card types and ensuring transactions route and settle correctly through the Optum Payments Network.
- Get listed in the Healthy Benefits+ app: Once your store is enrolled, it becomes discoverable to Health Benefit cardholders in the Healthy Benefits+ member app. Members use this app to search for participating stores before they shop, so being listed directly drives foot traffic to your location.
- Start accepting transactions: Once your setup is live, Health Benefit card transactions process at your terminal like any other credit transaction. The S3 network handles eligibility in real time; settlement flows through your processor, and you receive reimbursement for approved transactions.
Already Accepting SNAP EBT or OTC Through goEBT?
If your store is already processing SNAP EBT, OTC benefits, or other payment types through goEBT, adding Health Benefits through the S3 network is an extension of your existing setup, not a separate integration. One platform, one processor relationship, and one settlement report.
What Health Benefit Transactions Look Like at the Register
Once your store is enrolled, Health Benefit transactions are straightforward for cashiers to handle. The cashier will scan the proper PLUs for food and/or UPC’s for OTC items creating a basket, Health Benefit card is swiped at the termina with no PIN entry required. The S3 network verifies the member’s balance and confirms item eligibility in real time, and the transaction is approved or partially approved based on what is covered under the member’s plan.
If only part of the transaction is covered, the terminal will display the approved amount and prompt the customer to pay the remainder with another method. Your cashier does not need to manually calculate what is eligible. The network handles that determination and communicates it to the terminal during the transaction.
A few things worth training your staff on before going live:
- Split tender is common: Many customers will have a mix of eligible and ineligible items. The terminal handles the split, but cashiers should be prepared to guide customers through paying the remaining balance with a second form of payment.
- Declined items are a network decision: If an item is declined, it is because it falls outside the member’s plan coverage, not because of a terminal error. The S3 network determines eligibility, and that determination reflects the member’s specific plan.
Get Your Store Listed and Start Capturing Health Benefits Spending
CDE has partnered with Optum Payments Network to expand S3 Health Benefits payment acceptance nationwide. Health Benefit cardholders are actively searching for participating stores. Every month their allowances reload, and every month they decide where to spend them based on which stores are in the network.
Ready to get started? Contact our experts to find out if your store is in a high-transacting zip code and what it takes to enroll in the S3 network. Once enrolled, you can start accepting Health Benefit transactions alongside EBT, Credit and Debit, and more all through a single integrated platform.