Home Hemodialysis Without Placing Your Own Needles
You do not have to place your own needles to dialyze at home. With staff-assisted home hemodialysis from Elik Home Dialysis, a licensed dialysis nurse performs the cannulation and every other step of every treatment in your home, across the Houston and Dallas metros. Needle fear disqualifies no one here.
The needle barrier is real
For many patients, self-cannulation is the single reason home dialysis feels impossible. Traditional home hemodialysis training expects the patient or a family member to learn to place two needles into the access, three times a week, indefinitely. Plenty of capable people simply cannot or will not do that, and nothing about that is a failure.
What happens instead at Elik
At every Elik treatment, a licensed dialysis nurse examines your access, performs the cannulation, runs the complete treatment, monitors you one-on-one throughout, and removes the needles at the end. The same professional skill your access received in a facility now comes to your chair at home, with the nurse's full attention on one patient: you.
What consistent professional cannulation means
Your access is placed and handled by a licensed nurse at every single treatment, following your nephrologist's orders and standard access protocols, with any concern documented directly to your doctor after the visit. That is a factual description of the service, and it is the entire point: the technical work of dialysis stays in professional hands. How staff-assisted home hemodialysis works, step by step
Frequently asked questions
- No. The Elik nurse performs cannulation and needle removal at every treatment.
- The Elik nurse manages the access your nephrologist prescribed, whatever form it takes, at every treatment.
- No. Original Medicare does not pay for staff-assisted home hemodialysis, by law. Medicare Advantage plans follow Medicare's reimbursement rules, so they do not pay for it either. Elik provides staff-assisted home hemodialysis for eligible patients with BCBS, Cigna, or UnitedHealthcare/UHC commercial coverage, including when Medicare is the primary insurance. Medicare-only, Medicare Advantage (including BCBS, Cigna, or UHC Medicare Advantage plans), Medicare supplement (Medigap) plans, and Medicaid do not pay for this service through Elik. If you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, or UnitedHealthcare commercial insurance, on its own or as a secondary plan alongside Medicare, you qualify. Elik confirms your exact plan in one phone call.
- Call Elik: Houston (713) 861-7500, Dallas (972) 238-7788. We confirm your plan in one call, coordinate orders directly with your kidney doctor's office, and schedule your first home treatment.
Last reviewed: September 2026