New Jersey resident Sandra Johnson started feeling short of breath a few years ago, and sometimes it really limited what she could do. “Getting up to walk from my bedroom to the bathroom, I will be so out of breath that I would have to just sit on the toilet with the seat down … to prepare myself to get up to take a shower,” she said.
Her physician diagnosed her with severe persistent asthma and prescribed an injectable drug. Before she could get started on the treatment, Johnson’s doctor had to go back and forth with her insurance provider to convince them that she really needed this drug, a process called prior authorization. The insurance company approved it, and once Johnson got the treatment, she said she felt better. She could go back to her job as a clinical coordinator, do chores and go grocery shopping without trouble. To read the full story.