? re S3 use, dual eligibility, PPO D-SNP, grocery store

I have a question on using S3 at the grocery store.

My grocery store, Woodmans, is on the approved list of S3 sites. I always use self checkout, as my dysautonomia is triggered by standing still, which is exactly what happens when standing in line waiting for a cashier. Doing self-checkout is by far easier on my body.

Woodmans doesn’t make this easy to do, unlike Pick N Save. In order to use S3 at Woodman’s, the cashier needs to transfer the transaction from the self-checkout register to the attendant stationed in the area, and I pay for my groceries from there. It’s not convenient or practical, but it beats fainting from standing in a cashier’s line. So, it is what it is.

Recently, I have had the displeasure of working with attendants who are extremely rude and condescending about the S3 card. Yesterday, the woman working in the area got extremely angry about the S3 card, and said, “They’re supposed to have told your kind that you are prohibited from using self-checkout and must always use the cashier lane.”

I was shocked into speechless, and blinked several times. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, your kind can’t use these. These are for regular paying customers.”

I wasn’t in a space to argue, I just stood there while she processed my payment, which of course also involved the use of my debit card. I asked her name and took it down.

Is there some hidden rule about S3 payments that I do not know? I looked online and see no such thing mentioning restrictions on where and when one can use their S3. It’s limited to healthy food, but not to what checkout process one needs to use.