As a respiratory therapist, what are some of the common questions or barriers you've seen people w- living with COPD encounter when they're trying to access respiratory care?

Some of the barriers that I've seen people face is when they... c- because I see people when they come into the hospital, and oftentimes they're coming into the hospital because, uh, something went wrong.

You know, m- most of the time they could be...

they could get an illness, uh, like a virus, and they've just gotten sick, and they need to come in to see us.

But also quite often, maybe they ran out of their medication, and it was too expensive, and they couldn't refill it, and it's just like Emily said, where now their medication is no longer covered, so they couldn't spend the, you know, the extra several hundred dollars sometimes, and they were trying to figure it out, you know, late in the game, and then they got a virus, and they got sick, and here they are in the hospital.

Other times I see issues with oxygen, specifically because people moving or their DME company that they were using doesn't, uh, doesn't now cover them where they live now, and trying to navigate that, and oc- and the way that oxygen is billed through Medicare is really complicated.

Trying to navigate that and trying to figure out a company that can service their needs where they are now can be re- really challenging.

Audrey, for someone living with COPD or another chronic lung condition, what are two things you want them to remember when navigating their healthcare and coverage?