Instacart is expanding its payment options next year to include Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and other supplement health benefits for grocery deliveries. The move comes after the company began accepting food stamps as payment earlier this year.
The program, which will be administered through Alignment Health, will allow anyone who receives health insurance through Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and other eligible programs to use their plan-sponsored funds to purchase “eligible groceries, wellness essentials, and over-the-counter medications for delivery via Instacart,” the company said.
The goal is to improve access to nutritious food and over-the-counter medicines for seniors, many whom experience food insecurity as a result of transportation challenges and economic instability.
“The new plans will give participating seniors greater independence, convenience, and the dignity of choice to select the essentials they need to support their health from Instacart’s broad selection of retail partners,” Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Instacart Health, said in a blog post.
Instacart has been working to expand payment options to people on food stamps or other welfare programs for years now. The company partnered with grocery outlet Aldi on a pilot three years ago. Earlier this year, it announced that it now accepts food stamps in all 50 states.
Most delivery platform apps aren’t equipped to accept food stamps as a universal form of payment, though that may be changing. Uber Eats announced recently it would begin to accept food stamps.
An estimated 31 million people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, while 92 million are on Medicaid. SNAP is the biggest food assistance program in the US, with an estimated 41.2 million people receiving monthly benefits in the 2022 fiscal year, according to the Pew Research Center.