Association between Vision Loss and Higher Medical Care Costs in Medicare Beneficiaries

Medicare beneficiaries with coded diagnoses of vision loss incur significantly higher costs than those with normal vision, and approximately 90% of these costs are non-eye related medical costs. Extrapolating to the entire Medicare population, blindness and vision loss are associated with $2.14 billion in 2003 non-eye related medical costs. Preventing vision loss is not only a medical imperative but also an economic one.