Glaucoma Burden Rising Across Medicaid and Medicare Populations

Researchers presenting at the ARVO 2026 reported rising glaucoma prevalence, treatment utilization and healthcare costs across Medicaid and Medicare populations—particularly the former. The findings underscore the growing need for expanded screening access and cost-efficient glaucoma care strategies in the United States. Photo: Joseph W. Sowka, OD. Click image to enlarge. As the burden of glaucoma care grows, understanding its impact among different demographics could shed light on where screening and treatment access is needed most. With this goal in mind, a group of researchers evaluated national data from Medicaid and Medicare programs to characterize program-specific trends and quantify annual disease prevalence. Their results were presented at ARVO 2026. In the retrospective cross-sectional study, Medicaid was evaluated across six years and Medicare across one year. Outcomes included prevalence, subtype patterns, treatment utilization and economic burden estimated using Medicare reimbursement rates. Age, gender and race-stratified prevalence patterns were examined and trends were assessed. According to their findings, Medicaid data demonstrated multi-year increases in glaucoma prevalence (0.81% to 0.96%; 527,300 to 723,400 cases); increases in subtype diagnoses, including glaucoma suspect (+40.8%) and angle-closure glaucoma (+37.3%); and increased treatment utilization, with substantial increases in medications (+229%), surgery (+138%), drainage procedures (+109%) and laser therapy (+52%). The estimated economic burden increased significantly over the six years (+86.6%). Medicare showed smaller one-year percentage changes, but the absolute increase in Medicare cases (+319,900) exceeded the six-year increase in Medicaid (+196,100), reflecting population size and age distribution. In the Medicare dataset, prevalence rose from 13.6% to 13.93% (7,147,100 to 7,467,000 cases), with modest increases in medications (+3.5%), laser therapy (+6.6%), surgery (+35.9%) and a visible decline in filtering procedures (-44.7%). This decrease was not observed in Medicaid possibly reflecting differential adoption of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery, the authors noted.In both programs, glaucoma burden was highest among older adults and women. The estimated direct care economic burden increased modestly from $2.19B to $2.2B in the Medicare data.The researchers noted in their abstract that, “the contrasting trends in Medicaid and Medicare glaucoma patterns highlight the growing burden of glaucoma and the need to expand screening and treatment access in Medicaid populations while promoting cost-efficient, evidence-based care strategies to manage the substantial glaucoma burden in Medicare.”Original abstract ©2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.Click here for the source. Abdelghani S, Tawfik H. Glaucoma patterns in the USA: A comparative analysis of Medicaid & Medicare data. ARVO 2026 annual meeting.  This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.