Just told you need dialysis? Take a breath. Then read this.
If you were just told you need dialysis in Houston, take a breath: you have more options than you were given in that appointment, including staff-assisted home hemodialysis from Elik Home Dialysis, where a licensed nurse performs every treatment in your home. Here is what is happening and what to do next.
What just happened
A dialysis diagnosis usually arrives fast. One appointment, one set of numbers, and suddenly there is a treatment schedule where your normal life used to be. Most people leave that conversation with one impression: report to a dialysis center three times a week, indefinitely. That impression is incomplete. The center is one option. It is not the only one, and for many patients in Houston it is not the best one.
Your three options, honestly laid out
In-center hemodialysis. The default. You travel to a clinic three times a week and share the treatment floor and the nursing staff: under Texas rules, one nurse can cover up to twelve patients at once. It works, and it costs you the commute, the fixed schedule, and the room full of strangers.
Home dialysis you run yourself. This is what nearly every article online is actually about. The appeal is real: it happens at home. Here is the part those articles gloss over: you, or a family member, have to be trained and then do the work, placing needles, operating the machine, managing the treatment. The freedom is real, and so is the load, and the load lands on you or on someone who loves you. Every other home option asks something of you or your family. Elik asks nothing of either.
Staff-assisted home hemodialysis. The option nobody leads with, because almost nobody offers it. A licensed Elik nurse comes to your home and performs every step of every treatment: setup, needles, monitoring, breakdown, documentation to your doctor. You are the patient, not the technician. No care partner. No training. No commute. How it works, step by step
Will insurance cover it?
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. Elik confirms your exact plan in one free, no-obligation phone call: (713) 861-7500.
How fast do you have to move?
Your nephrologist sets the clinical timeline; that part is medicine. What you control is the setting, and the earliest weeks are when the setting is easiest to choose. Before the center routine hardens into the default, one phone call puts the home option on the table: Elik confirms your plan while you are on the line and coordinates orders directly with your kidney doctor's office. If you are still in the hospital, call from the bed; discharges are prioritized.
Can you keep working?
For many patients, yes, and the setting is the difference. Home treatments schedule around your work hours, and the commute disappears entirely. Many Elik patients keep working without missing a step. Keep working on dialysis in Houston
What to do this week
One: call Elik at (713) 861-7500 and get your exact plan confirmed; it is free and takes one call. Two: if you qualify, Elik coordinates orders directly with your kidney doctor's office; you do not negotiate anything yourself. Three: pick the chair in your home where treatment will happen. That is the whole list. If no one at home can help with treatments, nothing changes: the Elik nurse is the care partner.
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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No. Many Elik patients start at home from day one. A licensed Elik nurse performs every treatment in your home; you never settle into a center at all.
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You still qualify. The Elik nurse performs the entire treatment, so no care partner is ever required. Living alone is one of the most common reasons patients choose Elik.
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Your nephrologist sets the clinical timeline. What you control is the setting, and the earliest weeks are the easiest time to set up home treatment, before center routines set in. One call to Elik starts it.
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Many Elik patients do. Treatments are scheduled around your work hours at home, with no clinic commute. See keep working on dialysis in Houston for the full picture.
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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: (713) 861-7500.
One call replaces a hundred anxious searches.
Elik confirms your plan, explains exactly how a home start works, and coordinates everything with your kidney doctor's office.
Last reviewed: September 2026