ORLANDO, Fla. – Medicare open enrollment is underway, but every year seniors may be leaving billions of dollars on the table in unused benefits.
We’re talking about so-called OTC benefits.
Medicare offers OTC benefits through certain Medicare Advantage plans, allowing seniors to purchase all sorts of supplies — everything from toothpaste to toilet paper, even some groceries — free of charge
Lynn Fitzgerald, 68, recently suffered stroke and struggles to get around. So every month, she goes online to shop for supplies using her Medicare Over the Counter benefits.
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“Every quarter I get $120,” said Fitzgerald, who uses the benefit to buy aspirin, bandages, heating pads and more. “It’s a lot of money. This electric toothbrush is $30.”
Everything she buys with her OTC benefits, including nightlights, hand lotion and more, is delivered to her Poinciana home free of charge.
“When you place an order, it’s on the front porch the next day. It doesn’t get more convenient than that,” said Doug Franklin, who lives in The Villages and also takes advantage of the benefit.
However, millions of other seniors reportedly do not use their benefit.
“Across the country, there are a few billion dollars a year left unspent from their OTC benefit. Just in the Orlando area, before the end of the year, there will be $80 million left unspent on people’s OTC benefits,” said Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz, who created the free Chapter OTC app to help seniors use their benefit.
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“You are literally throwing $650 down the toilet if you do not redeem these benefits,” said Blumenfeld-Gantz, who added that he developed the app after seeing his own parents struggle to navigate Medicare.
“So we built an app that makes it very easy to look up your Medicare plan, see exactly what benefit you have, whether it’s $50 a month or a couple hundred bucks a months, and we show you the exact items for which you’re eligible and make it easy with a couple of clicks to have those items delivered to your door instead of having to go into a pharmacy or make seven different phone calls,” said Blumenfeld-Gantz.
The Chapter OTC app says it supports most Medicare plans and reaches more than 90% of seniors.
“I mean this day and age, with inflation being what it is, everyone concerned about budgets and cost of food and household items, it just makes no sense to me that you wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity,” Franklin said.