What Can You Buy with a UHC OTC Card?
See what’s eligible with your UCard and explore the UHC catalog
Over 50% of Medicare Advantage plans come with an OTC benefit. Unfortunately, many seniors don’t use their OTC benefit. The common reasons? Some people don’t know they have the benefit or forget to use it. Others find it too annoying to navigate the clunky OTC systems provided by insurance companies. Finally, many people don’t understand the value or don’t know what they can get. To avoid confusion or mistakes while shopping, they simply forgo using the benefit.
OTC benefits can provide tremendous value if you use them. In fact, the average senior on Medicare Advantage has $400 in OTC dollars. Many people have significantly more! Because so many seniors are on fixed incomes, these benefits can save meaningful money on everyday essentials—and sometimes groceries.
So what exactly can you get with your UHC benefit? How can you maximize the value?
What’s eligible to get with a UHC OTC Card?
One thing that makes OTC benefits confusing is that each plan has a different list of eligible items. Even two different UHC Medicare Advantage plans will have two different lists. That said, most UHC OTC allowances cover the same general items, which we’ll lay out below.
Eligible items for UHC OTC:
- Oral hygiene products like floss, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and denture cleansers
- First aid supplies, including thermometers, bandaids, hydrocortisone, vaseline, and cotton balls
- Cold, cough, and flu remedies, including vapo rub, cough drops, cough medicine, and mucinex
- Vitamins and supplements, including daily multivitamins as well as specific supplements, like Vitamin D
- Pain relief products like heating pads, ice packs, seat cushions, advil/tylenol/ibuprofen
- Skin and suncare items like sunscreen, aloe, bug spray, lotion, and dandruff shampoo
- Eye and ear care products, including eye drops and debrox for earwax removal
- Incontinence supplies like pads, adult diapers, and flushable wipes
- Digestive health products like antacids, laxatives, fiber supplements, and heartburn relief
- Diabetes care supplies, including glucose meters, test strips, lancets, and glucose tablets
- Home diagnostics like blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, and digital scales
- Foot care items, including anti-fungal cream, corn and callus removers, foot powder, and insoles
- Allergy and sinus relief like antihistamines (zyrtec/claritin), nasal sprays, and breathe-right strips
- Supports and braces, including knee braces, wrist and ankle supports, and compression socks
- Sleep aids like melatonin and nighttime diphenhydramine (compare to unisom)
- Home aids and bathroom safety items like pill organizers, grab bars, and reachers/grabbers
Looking for a specific item? Browse eligible OTC items for UHC Medicare Advantage plans.
If you’re on a Special Needs Plan, your OTC benefit will cover more items. These plans often cover things like utilities and healthy foods. What qualifies as “healthy foods?” Things like cheerios, nuts, oatmeal, protein bars, protein drinks, vegetables, fruit, canned tuna—and so much more. Browse grocery items commonly covered by OTC.
What isn’t eligible for UHC OTC?
In many ways, OTC benefits work similarly to FSA benefits—with one big exception. OTC benefits cannot be used on healthcare expenses and prescriptions.
Below is a list of other items that OTC benefits will not cover:
- Alcohol and tobacco
- Cosmetics and hair products
- Unhealthy foods, like cake, candy, cookies, ice cream, and frozen yogurt
- Pet items
How to get the most out of your UHC OTC benefit
To get the most value from your OTC benefit, you should focus on items you need and use often first. Things like toothpaste, vitamins, allergy medicine, sunscreen and incontinence supplies or contact solution (if applicable). You may also have some one-time needs based on a current illness or season, like cough medicine or bug spray. If you have a Special Needs Plan and qualify for healthy food items, groceries also fit into this first group.
If you still have money left in your UCard allowance, then take a look at one-time purchases that could be useful. Think: pill organizers, bathroom grab bars, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, and ice packs.
Finally, look at items with a long shelf life that you could stock up on. These items could include first aid supplies, over-the-counter pain medicine, lotion, toothbrushes, etc.
Where to shop for UHC OTC items
There are around 65,000 stores where UCard holders can use their OTC benefits nationwide. Some popular options include Walmart, Walgreens, and Dollar General.
One of the issues with many of these stores, however, is that it’s not clear what is and is not eligible when shopping in a store. People often get tripped up by specific brands or size options. For some seniors, getting to the store itself presents a challenge.
That’s why we built MyOTC.com. With My OTC, you can shop your specific plan’s eligible OTC items easily without confusion, and without a trip to the store. Sign up in under two minutes and place your order in 5. Your OTC items will be delivered straight to your door—all for free. Redeem your UHC OTC benefits today.
