Home infusions?

You can get Entyvio infused at home? They start an IV in you at your house? I had a friend that had a home nurse come put medicine in her when she had cancer but she had a PIC line, so no IV starting. I couldn't imagine my insurance ever approving home Entyvio infusion for covenience in a million years.

That would be so awesome, not have to haul my butt across town. Ridiculous, I live near a huge new Kaiser facility and other close by clinics but I have to go way across town in gawd awful traffic to get to the one infusion clinic they have. In addition, no matter how far out you schedule, appt availability is a joke. Lol, the waiting area is same waiting area for the urgent care. That makes sense, have people being infused with immune suppressing drugs wait with the sick people.

Yeah, home infusions sound kind of convenient to me!

CC

How are you feeling?

Hello. I have been getting monthly Remicade infusions at home for 8 months now. This was at the request of insurance, like you. The week of the infusion the pharmacy calls me and says when they will be delivering, and then the day of the delivery the driver calls when he is on his way. I get the med and put it in the fridge, and I get it out an hour before the nurse arrives. The nurse places the IV, then mixes the med. It is about the same amount of time it took at the hospital, maybe a little less. I do them at the dining room table while I do stuff for work on my computer. The thing I was most worried about was that the nurse would talk my ear off and I wouldn't get any work done, but this hasn't been the case. I am in a small town in the middle of nowhere, scheduling appointments hasn't been a problem, but this may be because they need an entire morning or afternoon blocked off to give it to me. I'm sure everywhere is different, but I know the nurse has specific instructions not to mix the med until the IV is placed. Once the med is mixed they have 3 or 4 hours to get it in you or they can't use it on you or anyone else.

I would keep on this point. The hospital and/or infusion centers plays the roll of both pharmacist and medical-services provider. Sometimes they even bill a health insurance plan and a prescription benefits plan separately. My workplace has BC/BS for health and Optim Rx for pharmacy.

IF necessary, maybe you could pick up the med from a pharmacy and have it ready for the visiting nurse.

good luck

At first one would ponder, how can a home infusion be cheaper? Well let me cite an example on the markup. My former GI office did infusions in-office, at their private practice and they billed insurance for $6,400.00 for my remicade and got paid $3,200.00. I now go to another GI practice at a hospital, same drug and dosage and my insurance pays $9,600.00 for it. In that scenario, a home infusion would be waaay cheaper... Hospital-infusion-center markup is insane.

They do deliver the medication in the evening for me, the night before the infusion. I too work full time but am able to work at home during the infusions. For me, the pharmacy, nurse, and my doctor are all under the same health care company, so that makes things easier. I'm sure everyone has a different situation.