A significant rise ($1.5 billion more per year) can be attributed to greater uptake of aflibercept by retina specialists. Regional differences reflect local variation in disease burden.

While the trends reported represent small changes, due to the size of the US Medicare beneficiary population these differences equate to a large number of individuals and considerable economic cost.

Patients with Medicare in areas that were rural, had lower household incomes or higher unemployment rates did not make significant use of available services.