Just Started Dialysis? Your Home Options in the First 90 Days
If you started dialysis in the last 90 days, you can move treatment home now: a licensed Elik Home Dialysis nurse performs every step of every session in your home, with no care partner and no training. The earliest weeks are the easiest time to set up home treatment, before center routines set in.
What just happened, and what nobody told you
A dialysis start moves fast. In one appointment, or one hospital stay, you went from a number on a lab report to a treatment schedule, and the plan you were handed almost certainly had one destination: a chair in a dialysis center, three times a week. What rarely gets said in that appointment is that you have more options than you were given, and the first 90 days are exactly when they are easiest to use.
Your three options, in plain terms
In-center dialysis. The default most new patients are steered toward. The treatment works, and it comes with the center's schedule, the transportation, the shared treatment floor, and one nurse covering up to twelve patients under Texas rules.
Home dialysis you run yourself. The work falls on you or your family: training, setup, needles, troubleshooting. Every other home option asks something of you or your family. Elik asks nothing of either.
Staff-assisted home hemodialysis. The option nobody told you about. A licensed Elik nurse comes to your home, or your assisted living or skilled nursing facility, and performs every step of every treatment: setup, needles, monitoring, breakdown. One nurse, one patient. No care partner. No training. No commute. See the full side-by-side.
Why the first 90 days are the easiest time
Two reasons. First, coverage: a Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, or UnitedHealthcare commercial plan, qualifies in any position, whether it is your only plan or a secondary plan alongside Medicare, so for many working patients and retirees with group coverage, the door is already open. Second, momentum: the easiest time to set up home treatment is early, before center routines set in. New starts and hospital discharges are prioritized; call from the hospital and discharge day becomes dialysis-plan day.
What a home start actually looks like
One call starts it. Elik confirms your exact plan while you are on the phone, coordinates orders directly with your kidney doctor's office, delivers and sets up the equipment, and schedules your first home treatment, usually within days of confirmed coverage and received orders. You never operate a machine, never place a needle, and never train anyone in your household. Your job is your own chair. Coverage details
Your nephrologist stays in charge
Every Elik treatment runs under your own nephrologist's orders and is performed by a licensed, certified dialysis nurse: one nurse, one patient, the entire treatment. Your doctor receives documentation after every visit and directs your care exactly as before. Behind every treatment is a team with more than 80 years of combined experience in dialysis, 45 of them in staff-assisted home hemodialysis. Elik changes where your treatment happens and whose hands perform it, never who your doctor is.
Frequently asked questions
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Yes. Many Elik patients start at home from day one and never settle into a center. Elik confirms your plan, coordinates orders directly with your kidney doctor's office, and schedules your first home treatment.
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No. A licensed Elik dialysis nurse performs every step of every treatment: setup, needles, monitoring, breakdown. You never operate equipment, and no care partner is required.
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Within days of a confirmed benefit and received orders. Hospital discharges are prioritized: call while you are still admitted, and discharge day becomes dialysis-plan day.
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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: Houston (713) 861-7500, Dallas (972) 238-7788.
Start at home. Skip the chair entirely.
One call confirms your plan, coordinates your doctor's orders, and schedules your first home treatment.
Last reviewed: September 2026