Asthma Medicine for Adults / Teens
2024-25 Edition
Why is it important to get the right types and amounts of asthma medicines?
Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. Asthma attacks can be painful, scary, and dangerous. To prevent these attacks, your doctor should make sure that you get the right combination of medicines for your asthma and that you know when and how to use the medicine properly.
How should doctors treat asthma?
If you have asthma, you and your doctor should develop an asthma action plan. Your doctor will prescribe medicines — called anti-inflammatories or controller drugs — that help reduce swelling in your lungs that may lead to asthma attacks. You should also be prescribed reliever drugs to use when you are having an asthma attack. Relievers help reduce wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. The plan should also help you learn how to avoid triggers that can bring on an asthma attack such as tobacco smoke, mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution.
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 asthma. These additional services may be educational materials (online and in print), classes or support groups, or phone counseling.
What do the stars mean?
The scores show how well each health plan did at making sure members, ages 12 through 64 who experienced frequent asthma symptoms, got the right combination of medicines - called controllers and relievers - for their asthma and knew when and how to use them properly. A 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 2023.
Data Disclaimer
The data source for data for the Report Cards is Quality Compass® 2024 and is used with the permission of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Quality Compass® 2024 includes Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) and Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) data. Any data display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion based on these data is solely that of the authors. NCQA specifically disclaims responsibility for any such display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion. Quality Compass and HEDIS are registered trademarks of NCQA. CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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