MA Flex Cards Squeeze Enrollees with Inflated Pricing – Demand CMS Oversight

As a Medicare Advantage enrollee in Florida with chronic conditions, I rely on the Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) flex card—a benefit authorized by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and administered through CMS rules—to help cover healthy groceries, OTC items, utilities, transportation, and essentials. For years across multiple plans (including CVS/Aetna and CarePlus/Caremark), I've encountered egregious restrictions that inflate costs and erode the benefit's value: CVS Flex Card ($175/month in 2026): Works in-store at approved retailers (grocery, Walmart) for rideshares, gas (though unreliable), utilities, paper towels, shampoo, etc. But online/app-only shopping is locked to CVS's separate Flex app, where prices are full retail—no discounts, coupons, BOGO deals, or my paid CVS membership rewards. In-store, my membership stacks savings (e.g., 50% off + coupons); online with the benefit, I pay 2-3x more for identical items. This forces me to shop in-store monthly, wasting time/transportation benefits. CarePlus/Caremark: Similar racket—catalog at full retail prices, but shipped in cheap bulk packaging (hospital wholesale equivalents). These aren't minor glitches; they're systemic profit extraction. Plans get CMS payments for these "extras," outsource to vendors, and enrollees get devalued dollars while plans/vendors pocket the spread. No CMS rules mandate fair pricing, discount parity, or transparency for flex card delivery—despite marketing these as "free money" for necessities. This violates the intent of SSBCI to improve health/function for chronically ill seniors and the disabled on fixed incomes. In Florida, where MA enrollment is high, it's squeezing vulnerable constituents. I urge you to act: Support/enact the Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Transparency Act (S.3573) to require enrollee-level data on flex card usage/pricing—exposing waste. Direct CMS to issue rules mandating: Discount/coupon parity across in-store/online flex card use. Price transparency (no inflated app pricing). Full usability (gas, utilities without barriers). Investigate MA vendor contracts (CVS, Caremark) for overpricing and hold hearings on flex card value erosion. Florida families—and all MA enrollees—deserve the full benefit Congress intended, not vendor profits. Please respond with your position and actions. Thank you,