Differences in characteristics of Medicare patients treated by ophthalmologists and optometrists

PURPOSE: To quantify differences in the age, gender, race, and clinical complexity of Medicare beneficiaries treated by ophthalmologists and optometrists in each of the United States. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study based on publicly accessible Medicare payment and utilization data from 2012 through 2017. METHODS: For each ophthalmic and optometric provider, demographic information of treated Medicare beneficiaries was obtained from the Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the years 2012 through 2017. Clinical complexity was defined using CMS Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) coding. RESULTS: From 2012 through 2017, ophthalmologists in every state treated statistically significantly older beneficiaries, with the greatest difference (4.99 years in 2014) between provider groups seen in Rhode Island. In most states there was no gender difference among patients treated by the providers but in 46 states ophthalmologists saw a more racially diverse group of beneficiaries. HCC risk score analysis demonstrated that ophthalmologists in all 50 states saw more medically complex beneficiaries and the differences were statistically significant in 47 states throughout all six years. CONCLUSIONS: Although there are regional variations in the characteristics of patients treated by ophthalmologists and optometrists, ophthalmologists throughout the United States manage older, more racially diverse, and more medically complex Medicare beneficiaries.