CannaCoverage is helping to bridge the gap between cannabis patients and traditional health care programs.
Through a partnership with Bennabis Health, CannaCoverage is providing an alternative health plan to help defray some of the expenses of medical cannabis for ailments such as chronic pain or cancer. It’s a first step in a longstanding goal for medical cannabis to be reimbursable just like other prescription drugs and for medical cannabis to replace prescription pharmaceuticals as much as possible.
“We’re really excited about bringing these innovative health products to the marketplace and scaling patient access and affordability through employee health benefits,” CannaCoverage founder and CEO Nichelle Santos says. “It’s really historic with what we’re doing and bringing medical cannabis to the public sector.”
The CannaCoverage plan is offered as an add-on to an existing medical insurance plan, somewhat similar to a prescription drug plan. Patients receive an ID card that provides them a 20% to 25% discount at participating cannabis retail shops.
So far, the company has established relationships with seven cannabis shops in New Jersey: Camden Apothecary in Camden; Elevated by the CannaBoss Lady in Maplewood; Holistic Solutions in Atco; URB’N in Newark; Valley Wellness in Raritan; Yuma Way in Garfield; and The Cannabist in Deptford and Vineland.
Not only is the program increasing patient access and affordability, but Santos says it’s increasing awareness among potential new patients and helping to keep some emphasis on medical cannabis — which has largely been swept aside as many states have transitioned to an adult-use market.
New Jersey’s medical cannabis market, for example, has shrunk significantly with the growth of the adult-use market. The Garden State had nearly 130,000 patients in 2022. As of February 2025, that number had fallen under 64,000.
“It’s like they’re eliminating the medical market,” Santos says. “We don’t want folks to self-prescribe; we want them to understand the conditions that are impacted and what they should be looking for as a consumer. The problem is that the focus is being taken away from the patient.”
Santos says she understands the shift to the adult-use market, but wants to ensure the pendulum doesn’t swing too far.
“We’re saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget about the patients and what got us here in the first place,’” Santos says.
CannaCoverage is seeking to expand its network of participating retailers and insurance providers offering the medical cannabis program, as well talking to regulators in other states, such as New York, to keep things moving forward.
“Having state regulators recognize the importance of maintaining the medical market is critical,” Santos says.
Somewhat surprisingly, she’s encountered some pushback from cannabis companies, because they already offer their own employee discount program.
“They’re not really seeing the value,” Santos says. “Offering this as a benefit gives us a way to track and measure the impact of medical cannabis on that employee population. We really expect the cannabis industry to lead the charge for medical cannabis as a benefit, but right now it’s kind of being dismissed because they already provide a discount and ‘We don’t need you guys.’”
The program is designed to remove common barriers to medical cannabis, such as the cost and accessibility, while keeping everything patient-centered.
“It’s time to transform health care with medical cannabis leading the charge because it’s opening the door for other products and we’re knocking down that stigma,” Santos says.