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Cross-sectionalOphthalmology · 2026

Access to Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Drugs in Persons with Medicare Advantage Compared with Medicare Fee-For-Service.

Jennifer Chan, Michael X Repka, George A Williams … Ravi Parikh

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OphthalmologyCross-sectional

Medicare Advantage beneficiaries are associated with 7.7% lower use of aflibercept 2mg.

Access to Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Drugs in Persons with Medicare Advantage Compared with Medicare Fee-For-Service.

Jennifer Chan et al. · Ophthalmology · 2026

Purpose

To investigate intravitreal anti-VEGF drug use among Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) and Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries.

Methods

Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older with FFS or MA coverage with continuous insurance enrollment for at least12 months.

n = 4,271,050

-7.7%

Results

Use of aflibercept 2mg was 7.7% lower in Medicare Advantage compared to Fee-For-Service.

n = 4,271,050

More results

930,411 beneficiaries underwent 12,942,057 intravitreal injections.

In the FFS group, aflibercept 2mg was used most frequently (43.8%; n = 4,271,050), followed by bevacizumab (34.7%; n = 3,382,439), ranibizumab (20.6%; n = 2,008,791), brolucizumab (0.6%; n = 56,728) and faricimab (0.4%; n = 40,729).

More results

In the MA group, bevacizumab was used most frequently (45.1%; n = 1,436,151), followed by aflibercept 2mg (37.8%; n = 1,201,311), ranibizumab (6.5%; n = 524,758), brolucizumab (0.4%; n = 13,406), and faricimab (0.2%; n = 6,694).

47.0%; difference (diff) = 13.0%, 95% CI:12.8, 13.3%; P<.001).

“

Conclusion

Beneficiaries enrolled in MA were less likely to receive higher cost, anti-VEGF drugs, raising concerns about reduced beneficiary access to newer more expensive anti-VEGF drugs in MA.

Post

Access to Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Drugs in Persons with Medicare Advantage Compared with Medicare Fee-For-Service.

Medicare Advantage beneficiaries are associated with 7.7% lower use of aflibercept 2mg.

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