Pulmonary rehabilitation is known to improve quality of life for patients with COPD and other lung diseases, but lack of awareness and other barriers mean that many patients don’t know that this treatment option exists, or understand that pulmonary rehabilitation could be right for them. Furthermore, just finding a pulmonary rehabilitation program can be a challenge. Even for clinicians, the cumbersome enrollment and reimbursement processes can be extremely burdensome.

Livebetter.org, a collaboration between the ATS and the Gawlicki Family Foundation, seeks to help by providing comprehensive, user-friendly information about pulmonary rehabilitation to providers and to patients/family members/caregivers. To further enhance the clinician experience, the ATS also offers a pulmonary rehabilitation reimbursement toolkit on the ATS website, to help offices navigate the insurance and administrative aspects of prescribing pulmonary rehabilitation.

The website brings pulmonary rehab and its benefits, as well as whom and why it helps, to life through patient stories. Most importantly, livebetter.org offers an up-to-date pulmonary rehabilitation center directory, simplifying the process of finding the right pulmonary rehabilitation center.

Livebetter.org is a free resource that, along with this flyer and the newly updated Patient Information Series fact sheet,  you can use whenever you talk to your patients about living better with pulmonary rehabilitation.

Visit www.livebetter.org to learn more, and email Kimberly Lawrence to add your pulmonary rehabilitation program to the program directory.