Medical care cost of Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries with vision loss

This article, published in the February issue of Ophthalmic Epidemiology magazine, assesses the impact of vision loss on healthcare costs for Medicare and Medicaid patients. The authors' investigation found visually impaired patients tended to use healthcare resources more than did patients without vision loss.

The data evaluated by the authors suggests healthcare cost risk attributable to vision loss is not adequately captured by the Medicare hierarchical condition categories risk adjustment methodology. The authors theorize this is due to additional morbidity and treatment patterns associated with visual impairment.