Unintended consequences of delisting routine eye exams on retinopathy screening for people with diabetes in Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Routine eye examinations for healthy adults aged 20-64 years were delisted from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan in 2004, but they continue to be insured for people with diabetes regardless of age. We sought to assess whether the delisting of routine eye examinations for healthy adults had the unintended consequence of decreasing retinopathy screening for adults with diabetes.

Methods

We used administrative data to calculate eye examinations for people with diabetes ages 40-64 years and 65 years and older in each 2-year period from 1998 to 2010. We examined differences by sex, income, rurality and type of health care provider. We used segmented linear regression to assess the change in trend before and after 2004.

Results

For people with diabetes aged 65 y

SUBMITTER: Kiran T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3576462 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature