What is keratoconus and what does corneal cross-linking treat?

Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease in which the cornea (the clear front surface of the eye) thins and gradually bulges outward in a cone shape, distorting vision. Keratoconus prevalence: approximately 1 in 2,000 people; typically begins in the teens or 20s; progressive disease that can severely impair vision over years. Vision impairment mechanism: the irregular cone-shaped cornea causes significant astigmatism and blurred vision; as the disease progresses, soft contact lenses become insufficient and rigid scleral lenses are required; in advanced cases, corneal transplant (penetrating keratoplasty or DALK) is needed. Before cross-linking: there was no treatment to halt keratoconus progression; patients were managed with progressively stronger glasses/contacts until requiring corneal transplant. Corneal cross-linking (CXL): Glaukos's KXL system (from the Avedro acquisition) is the only FDA-approved treatment that halts keratoconus progression; the procedure involves applying riboflavin (vitamin B2) eye drops to the cornea and then exposing it to controlled UV-A light (from the KXL device with Photrexa Viscous and Photrexa drugs); the UV light activates the riboflavin, creating new chemical bonds ('cross-links') between collagen fibers in the cornea; these cross-links stabilize and strengthen the corneal stroma, halting the progressive thinning. CXL does not reverse existing damage — it stops further deterioration; patients treated early can avoid or delay corneal transplant.

What is iDose TR and how does it differ from traditional glaucoma eye drops?

iDose TR (travoprost implant) is Glaukos's sustained-release drug delivery system for glaucoma patients. Traditional glaucoma management challenge: most glaucoma patients are prescribed daily eye drops (typically once-daily prostaglandin analogues — travoprost, latanoprost, bimatoprost); these lower IOP effectively but patient adherence is poor — studies show only 50-70% of glaucoma patients take their drops consistently; forgetting drops, difficulty self-administering drops (especially for elderly patients), and side effects all contribute to non-adherence; non-adherent patients have worse IOP control and more optic nerve damage over time. iDose TR mechanism: iDose TR is a tiny titanium reservoir filled with travoprost (a prostaglandin analogue); it's implanted in the trabecular meshwork (same area as iStent) in a brief office procedure; the implant slowly releases travoprost directly into the eye's drainage area for approximately 12 months; when the drug is depleted, the surgeon replaces the implant in another brief office procedure. Advantages: no daily drop adherence required — the sustained release eliminates the compliance problem; drug delivery is directly to the target tissue at controlled rates; patients avoid eye drop preservatives (benzalkonium chloride) that can irritate the ocular surface over years. FDA approved iDose TR for open-angle glaucoma in February 2024. Glaukos is launching iDose TR commercially in 2024-2025 with reimbursement established.

What is home health care and what drove Optum's acquisition of Amedisys?

Home health care provides skilled nursing and therapy services to patients recovering from surgery, illness, or injury in their own homes. Home health patients: typically elderly patients discharged from hospitals or skilled nursing facilities who need continued skilled care (wound care, medication management, physical therapy) but are medically stable enough to recover at home. Medicare home health coverage: Medicare Part A covers home health when a physician certifies medical necessity and the patient is 'homebound' (leaving home requires considerable effort); Medicare pays per 30-day episode of care; the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) payment system replaced the prior 60-day payment model in 2020. Why Optum acquired Amedisys: UnitedHealth Group's Optum arm is pursuing a care delivery strategy — building a comprehensive healthcare delivery system including physician groups (Optum Health physicians — over 70,000 physicians), surgical centers, home health (Amedisys, LHC Group), pharmacy benefits (OptumRx), and analytics (OptumInsight); Optum believes owning the care delivery sites allows it to better manage total cost of care for UnitedHealth's insurance members; keeping members recovering at home (less expensive) versus in SNFs (more expensive) reduces total medical spending; Amedisys's scale and geographic reach made it an attractive acquisition to expand Optum's home-based care delivery capability.

brimindinvest.com / compare / gkos-vs-amedLIVE

GKOS

Glaukos Corporation · Healthcare - Ophthalmic Medical Devices

$130.68

-6.59% this month

VERSUS

⟷

COMPARE

AMED

Amedisys, Inc. (Acquired by Optum in 2025) · Healthcare - Home Health & Hospice Services

N/A

N/A this month

Scoreboard verdict

Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin

GKOS

0

AMED

0

MIXED SETUP

Comparison scoreboard

MIXED SETUP

AI Score

GKOS 48.5

AMED N/A

1Y Return

GKOS +27.69%

AMED N/A

Fwd P/E

GKOS 294.57

AMED N/A

Target Up.

GKOS +20.52%

AMED N/A

Op. Margin

GKOS N/A

AMED N/A

Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026

Quick take

GKOS vs Healthcare Services Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside

GKOS (Glaukos) is an active, publicly traded ophthalmic medical device company with leading MIGS (minimally invasive glaucoma surgery) devices and corneal cross-linking products, while AMED (Amedisys) was a home health and hospice services company that was acquired by Optum/UnitedHealth Group in 2025 and is no longer publicly traded. Glaukos represents specialized ophthalmic technology with differentiated devices; Amedisys represented home-based care services with scale economics.

GKOS vs (formerly AMED) is ophthalmology device company with pioneering MIGS devices and sustained drug delivery (Glaukos's iStent and iDose TR addressing glaucoma and KXL treating keratoconus with differentiated medical devices and drug delivery systems) versus home health and hospice services company (Amedisys's nationwide in-home care platform that was acquired by Optum in 2025 as UnitedHealth seeks to expand care delivery capabilities beyond insurance) — specialty medtech versus home-based care services.

Live analysis · updated 6/20/2026

GKOS and AMED are closely matched — they split the tracked metrics evenly.

Normalized 1Y performance

GKOS

AMED

Not enough data to chart yet.

Recent returns

GKOS

AMED

Analyst price targets & sentiment

GKOS · 12 analysts

STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL

Strong Buy (1.2/5.0)

Price target range

analyst low$138.00
analyst high$170.00
analyst mean$157.50
current price$130.68

+20.5% upside to analyst mean

AMED

Price target data unavailable

N/A

Who should consider this stock?

GKOS may suit investors who:

→Want ophthalmic medical device exposure with leading MIGS market position — Glaukos's iStent has established market-leading position in minimally invasive glaucoma surgery alongside cataract surgery
→Value Glaukos's iDose TR sustained drug delivery as a potential paradigm shift in glaucoma management, replacing daily eye drops with a 12-month in-eye travoprost implant that eliminates patient non-compliance
→Believe corneal cross-linking (KXL/keratoconus treatment) represents a large, growing market as awareness of keratoconus increases and insurance coverage expands

Investors interested in the home health sector should consider:

→Addus HomeCare (ADUS) — personal care and home health services for Medicaid populations; independent publicly traded company serving primarily older adults
→Encompass Health (EHC) — inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health; publicly traded with significant post-acute care market position
→The home health sector broadly benefits from aging demographics and Medicare's preference for lower-cost home-based care over institutional care, though reimbursement reform and labor costs remain ongoing challenges

Performance & AI score

Metric	GKOS	AMED
AI score	48.5	N/A
AI rank	#554	N/A
Latest close	$130.68	N/A
1M return	-6.59%	N/A
6M return	+16.24%	N/A
1Y return	+27.69%	N/A

$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)

How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?

Period	GKOS	AMED
1Y ago	$12.77K (+27.7%) started 2025-06-18	N/A
5Y ago	$15.96K (+59.6%) started 2021-06-18	N/A
10Y ago	$44.25K (+342.5%) started 2016-06-20	N/A

Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.

Valuation & upside potential

Metric	GKOS	AMED
Market cap	$7.68B	N/A
Trailing P/E	N/A	N/A
Forward P/E	294.57	N/A
Price/Sales	13.92	1.41
EV/Revenue	13.27	N/A
Analyst target	$157.50	N/A
Target upside	+20.52%	N/A

Growth, profitability & risk

Metric	GKOS	AMED
Revenue growth	41.20%	N/A
Earnings growth	N/A	N/A
EPS growth	N/A	N/A
FCF margin	+1.10%	N/A
Operating margin	N/A	N/A
Profit margin	-34.34%	N/A
ROIC proxy	-26.39%	N/A
Return on equity	-26.39%	N/A
Dividend yield	0.00%	N/A
Beta	0.81	0.40
Debt/equity	15.78	N/A
Current ratio	5.43	N/A
Quick ratio	4.43	N/A

Drawdown & downside risk

Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.

1Y risk snapshot

GKOS max drawdown29.92%

AMED max drawdownN/A

GKOS max wkly drop25.94%

AMED max wkly dropN/A

5Y risk snapshot

GKOS max drawdown59.64%

AMED max drawdownN/A

GKOS max wkly drop34.85%

AMED max wkly dropN/A

10Y risk snapshot

GKOS max drawdown69.57%

AMED max drawdownN/A

GKOS max wkly drop36.57%

AMED max wkly dropN/A

Performance metrics by period

Period	Metric	GKOS	AMED
1Y	Growth	+27.69%	N/A
	CAGR	+27.71%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	0.64	N/A
	Max drawdown	29.92%	N/A
	Max daily drop	13.52%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	25.94%	N/A
5Y	Growth	+59.56%	N/A
	CAGR	+9.80%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	0.35	N/A
	Max drawdown	59.64%	N/A
	Max daily drop	21.41%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	34.85%	N/A
10Y	Growth	+342.53%	N/A
	CAGR	+16.05%	N/A
	Sharpe ratio	0.46	N/A
	Max drawdown	69.57%	N/A
	Max daily drop	28.45%	N/A
	Max wkly drop	36.57%	N/A

Business comparison

Category	GKOS	AMED
Company	Glaukos Corporation	Amedisys, Inc. (Acquired by Optum in 2025)
Sector	Healthcare - Ophthalmic Medical Devices	Healthcare - Home Health & Hospice Services
Industry	N/A	N/A
Core business	Glaukos is an ophthalmic medical device and pharmaceutical company focused on glaucoma and corneal health. Glaukos pioneered minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) with the iStent (and iStent inject) — a tiny titanium trabecular micro-bypass stent that can be implanted in the eye alongside cataract surgery to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients without the recovery time and complications of traditional glaucoma surgery. Glaukos also markets iDose TR (travoprost implant), a sustained-release drug implant that delivers a glaucoma medication directly into the eye for approximately 12 months. The Corneal Health segment (from the acquisition of Avedro in 2019) provides corneal cross-linking systems (KXL system + Photrexa drugs) for treating keratoconus (progressive corneal thinning).	Amedisys was one of the largest home health and hospice service providers in the United States before being acquired by Optum (a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary) in 2025 for approximately $3.3 billion (approximately $101 per share). Amedisys operated: home health nursing and therapy services (skilled nursing, physical/occupational/speech therapy for post-acute patients recovering at home), hospice care (comfort-focused end-of-life care at home for terminal patients with less than 6 months estimated life expectancy), and personal care (non-medical assistance with activities of daily living). Amedisys operated hundreds of care centers across approximately 40 U.S. states. Note: AMED is no longer an independent publicly traded company as of 2025.
Investor focus	Investors track Glaukos's iStent MIGS procedure growth (correlated with cataract surgery volumes and MIGS adoption rates), iDose TR commercial launch progress, corneal health (KXL/keratoconus) revenue, and the long-term potential of the iDose platform for sustained drug delivery in ophthalmic conditions.	As an acquired company, AMED is no longer publicly traded. The acquisition by Optum reflected the value of Amedisys's established home health and hospice network as UnitedHealth Group's care delivery arm (Optum) seeks to expand in-home care delivery as a cost-effective alternative to institutional care. Investors interested in the home health sector can consider LHC Group (acquired by Optum in 2023), Encompass Health (EHC — post-acute rehabilitation), or Addus HomeCare (ADUS).

GKOS strengths

→Pioneer in minimally invasive glaucoma surgery with iStent market leadership — Glaukos invented the MIGS category with the original iStent in 2012; first-mover advantage in MIGS has established Glaukos as the go-to MIGS brand; surgeons familiar with iStent tend to maintain loyalty
→iDose TR sustained-release drug implant is a differentiated glaucoma treatment — iDose TR delivers travoprost (a prostaglandin analogue) directly into the eye for approximately 12 months, replacing daily eye drops that patients frequently forget; this non-compliance-proof sustained delivery has significant clinical appeal
→Corneal cross-linking is the only treatment that halts keratoconus progression — the KXL system combined with Photrexa drugs is FDA-approved for keratoconus; corneal cross-linking stops the progressive thinning; before cross-linking, the only definitive treatment was corneal transplant; this transformative clinical profile drives durable demand

AMED strengths

→Home health care model is a cost-effective alternative to skilled nursing facilities for post-acute care — Medicare prefers home health for post-acute recovery when clinically appropriate; home health is approximately 40% cheaper per episode than skilled nursing facility (SNF) care while achieving comparable outcomes for appropriate patients
→Hospice is a growing segment driven by aging demographics and a preference for dying at home — hospice utilization has grown steadily; Medicare's hospice benefit provides a per-diem payment for end-of-life comfort care; hospice operators provide valuable services to patients and families during a difficult time
→Geographic scale in home health creates network density advantages — Amedisys's presence across 40 states created a dense referral network with hospitals, physicians, and ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) that needed reliable home health partners

Risks to watch — GKOS

→MIGS market has attracted significant competition — Alcon (CyPass, discontinued for safety; now iStent equivalent: iAccess?), New World Medical, AbbVie (Xen), and others have entered the MIGS category; Glaukos must sustain clinical and commercial differentiation
→iDose TR commercial launch requires ophthalmologist practice change — sustained drug delivery replaces daily eye drop administration; while clinically compelling, ophthalmologists must manage the reimbursement, procedural technique, and patient management workflow changes that iDose TR creates
→Corneal health KXL revenue is subject to reimbursement and insurance coverage variations — corneal cross-linking reimbursement coverage has been inconsistent across payers; penetration requires ongoing payer coverage advocacy

Risks to watch — AMED

→Home health Medicare reimbursement has been subject to rate cuts — the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) reimbursement reform reduced Medicare rates for some home health episodes; ongoing CMS rate setting creates reimbursement uncertainty
→Wage inflation is severe in home health — home health nurses, therapists, and aides face persistent labor shortages; wage inflation significantly impacts margins; home health companies must balance competitive wages with viable billing rates
→AMED is no longer publicly traded — Amedisys was acquired by Optum/UnitedHealth Group in 2025; investors seeking home health exposure should evaluate alternatives such as ADUS (Addus HomeCare) or EHC (Encompass Health)

Frequently asked questions

Glaucoma is a progressive optic nerve disease and leading cause of irreversible blindness globally, affecting approximately 80 million people worldwide (3 million in the U.S., with 2.7 million diagnosed and many more undetected). Glaucoma mechanism: most glaucoma is caused by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) due to impaired drainage of aqueous humor (the fluid inside the eye); the trabecular meshwork (drainage structure at the angle between the cornea and iris) becomes less efficient at draining fluid; elevated IOP compresses the optic nerve over years, damaging peripheral vision first then progressing to central vision loss; the disease is irreversible — vision lost from glaucoma cannot be recovered. Traditional treatments: eye drops (prostaglandin analogues, beta-blockers, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors) lower IOP; many patients struggle with daily eye drop adherence; laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) improves drainage; traditional glaucoma surgery (trabeculectomy, tube shunts) creates alternative drainage pathways but has significant recovery and complication risk. MIGS (Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery): MIGS procedures use tiny devices or techniques to improve trabecular meshwork outflow with much lower risk than traditional surgery; MIGS is typically performed alongside cataract surgery (same surgical session); Glaukos's iStent inject is a tiny (0.36mm) titanium device inserted through the trabecular meshwork to create a direct channel into Schlemm's canal, bypassing the trabecular resistance; procedure takes 1-2 minutes; recovery is the same as cataract surgery.

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