Treating Lung Disease – Corticosteroid Medication
2022-23 Edition
Why is it important to treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD with corticosteroids?
When you have COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it is hard to breathe. COPD can get worse over time and prevent you from doing basic activities like walking, cooking, and other everyday tasks. That is why it is important to stop smoking and to get your COPD treated with medication. If your breathing becomes more difficult, you may need to go to the emergency room or hospital.
How should doctors treat COPD?
There is no cure for COPD but it can be treated. It is important to work with your doctor to get the right treatment plan so that you can breathe easier and slow down the damage caused by the disease.
If you do go to the hospital or the emergency room, within two weeks your doctor should make sure you receive a systemic corticosteroid to help your breathing. This medicine quickly reduces inflammation in the airways in the lungs to make it easier to breathe.
Talk with your doctor and health plan to find out about what other services are available. Many health plans offer additional support and resources for patients with COPD. These additional services may be educational materials (online and in print), classes or support groups, or phone counseling.
What do the scores mean?
The scores show how well each health plan did at making sure patients with COPD got the right medicine, called a systemic corticosteroid, within 14 days after their breathing became even more difficult and resulted in an emergency room visit or hospital stay. The higher score means more patients got the right care at the right time.
The scores are based on information from at least 30 health plan member administrative records in 2021.
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