This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Study: Regional differences appear to be costliest disparity in US glaucoma care
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO — A study examining characteristics of the costliest glaucoma cases has found that patients in the Northeast are in the highest percentile of glaucoma-related charges when compared to other U.S. regions.
The poster study, by Joshua D. Stein, MD, MS, and colleagues, was presented at the joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Middle East African Council of Ophthalmology. It examined 19,927 patients with incident open-angle glaucoma from a large U.S. managed-care network database.
The study found that 5% of enrollees are "responsible for one-quarter of all charges." When compared with glaucoma patients in the Northeast, those in western states have a 26% reduced odds of being in the top 5% percentile; southeastern states, a 22% reduced odds; and midwestern states, a 41% reduced odds, Dr. Stein said.
"If we as a society are looking at a way to save money, we need to figure out who the top 5% are," he said in an interview with Ocular Surgery News. "I think we need to further understand these regional variations. We're just starting to explore the different factors between these."
The study also found that patients with comorbid eye conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy, and younger age at enrollment of care, had higher costs of care.