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Hello, hello. Thank you for tuning in today. If the thought of getting an infusion means blocking off your entire day, or driving somewhere unfamiliar, or sitting in a waiting room next to people that you don't know, there's actually another option. Today, I'm talking with Alexis Kaplan. She is a strategic marketing consultant for Home Infusion Options, and she's not just an expert on this topic, but her own daughter is actually a patient there as well.
On today's episode, we talk about how infusions can happen in your own home on your own schedule and time, why the same nurse comes every time, and what makes this different from a typical infusion center. Let's dive in
The big question is, how does someone with MS actually improve their mobility, strength, energy, [00:01:00] independence? The list goes on. My name is Dr. Gretchen Hawley, physical therapist and multiple sclerosis specialist. Welcome to The MSing Link podcast. Tune in as I share the top strategies and exercises to help you gain control over your life with MS using research-driven insights and advice from top industry experts.
Whether you're newly diagnosed or have had MS for over 30 years, whether you have relapsing MS or progressive MS, this podcast is for you. You're sure to feel empowered and inspired after each episode. Ready? Let's dive in
Alexis, thank you so much for being here with us today
It's so exciting
It is. I'm personally very excited because I have heard about home [00:02:00] infusion options for a few years now. One of which, because they have been at the annual MS conference that I've gone to, and I see it every year, and every year I'm like, "Ah, more people need to know about this."
So we're gonna dive into that. I've got lots of questions for you. But before we do, is it okay if I ask you a question from my interview deck?
Go for it
All right, I'm gonna shuffle. Your question is, ooh. Are you related to anyone famous or historical? And if so, who?
Good one. my son was a professional actor in California, so maybe that is a little bit.
V- very cool
You know, he comes up on IMDb or when people Google him, so that's sort of famous, but not really. ,
I would say so. I don't come up on IMBD.
um, and my daughter, is on Team USA for figure skating, so I
What?
guess that's the other part.
That is [00:03:00] so cool. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you got asked this
so fun. It's so fun. It's so cool. She's amazing. She's actually, my little warrior. she, , has Crohn's disease
Mm-hmm.
as well as collagenous gastritis, which most people have never in their lives heard of.
and she's just, she's amazing
Wow. Was she at the Olympics?
She was not. She's only 16.
Ah, okay. Wow
old enough. She's not at the level yet. She's at the junior level, which is the level right before the Olympic level
Okay. Wow. What an impressive family. I'm so happy you of all people got, pulled that question.
It, it's funny. My son wants nothing to do with acting anymore.
Oh, wow
He's like, "Don't Google me. Don't do anything."
Yep.
funny
Awesome. Well, okay, let's dive in. Before I ask any of my questions, can you let our listeners know who you are and what you do?
Absolutely. My name is Alexis Kaplan, and I [00:04:00] work with Home Infusion Options, which I serve as their strategic marketing consultant. And Home Infusion Options, the only way I can describe it is just life-changing. and that's from the perspective of a parent of a patient and working for them in every way.
I see things every day that I'm just like: "Wow, this really happens." So what Home Infusion Options does is that they meet their patients where life is actually happening for IV therapy, whether it's biologic, IVIG. They come to your home, they come to your office, they come to wherever they need to go to make sure you get your medicine without having to change your life, without having to sit in traffic for hours, without having to pay for parking, without having to go into a clinical infusion center.
You get to literally be in your pajamas on your [00:05:00] couch, and they come to you. And it's the same nurse every time, so you have no surprises, and it's very patient-centered. and as a parent of a child who has ulcerative colitis, for us, it's been consistency in care for her. And, like I said, it's been life-changing because she does not have to feel like a sick child anymore.
And I see that all over the place with lots of our patients. And whether it's an adult, a child, nobody needs to change the way they live their life for that. And Home Infusion Options offers that ability. They even have a program where they'll follow you to college.
Oh,
So if you're a college student, it's called College Connect, and if you're a college student and you need biologics or IVIG for whatever reason, they will come and do your infusions at [00:06:00] school.
They bring the medicine with them, all the supplies, and they come to your dorm room and, it's like being at home again
Wow. That is so amazing. I've just got so many questions for you. But someone who has experienced an infusion at home before, are there any differences that stand out to you of how HIO is different from other options?
Oh, absolutely. One of the best parts that from day one I realized is that they take so much out of the process for you so that you don't have to-- Again, it's like you don't have to be the mom of a sick kid. You don't have to... It's, it rubs off on each level. And that's what's so fantastic, is they handle the billing, the pre-authorization, the medication.
It's a one-stop shop. The pharmacy is in-house. [00:07:00] it just arrives. I've never seen a bill from them. the medicine arrives a week before my daughter's scheduled infusion, and I put it in the refrigerator, and I wait for them to arrive. And it's so easy. It's so easy. and like I said, it takes that feeling of, "Oh, I'm sick, I, get infusions," out of the entire process
Yeah. And I love that you said too it's the same nurse each time, just because I think that, that alone is so helpful for the connection and just feeling less like a patient and more like... you're part of a community and people who want to care versus just a doctor's appointment
Well, my daughter happens to be very, very close with her nurse and, they've developed this wonderful friendship. And when our nurse arrives, my daughter tells her all about what's been happening in the last four weeks, [00:08:00] and they sit and just chat. And the continuity in care is so important, especially with children like that who have, who have had to do clinical infusions, had to go to infusion centers where sometimes it's where children are getting chemotherapy or, anything like that.
And that's really hard, especially for younger kids to walk into. And it was always scary
I mean, for sure. And even if you're not a kid though, I feel like that something like that can be scary at any age. And even as it relates to multiple sclerosis, one thing that I'm constantly hearing is that a lot of people with MS don't necessarily want to go to support groups because they don't want to see other people with MS that might have it off worse than them.
Maybe they're in a wheelchair and they are fearful of being in a wheelchair or whatever it might be. Whatever their associations are with what someone might look like at that support group, it makes them fearful, and so they don't [00:09:00] wanna go. And I feel like it can be the same with infusions as well.
I get it. I totally get that. I mean, I had to explain to my daughter at a very young age when we went into the first infusion center at a children's hospital, and there were other kids in the triage that didn't have hair, couldn't walk, were in wagons. And that was really hard to digest for me- Mm-hmm
let alone then explain to my child. And then there's all the fears.
Yeah. It was just like that. "Oh gosh, what if this is what's happening to my child?" And it's not, it's not in an way.
Right, exactly
And you wanna teach your kid to have compassion and empathy for what they see. and yes, it's a learning moment for that, but with it comes a lot of fear
Yeah. Yeah, and I think it is more so that fear because, you know, even if, you see someone with MS or otherwise any other condition, but in a wheelchair, it could just [00:10:00] be that they're conserving their energy that day. They can also, you know, use different mobility aids. You just chose that one today. But the stories that we tell ourselves around what that might mean, it's very fear-based.
you don't ever wanna ask, "Oh, how bad is it?" Or, "Where are you at with your treatment?" Or, you it's one of those slippery slopes of how do I explain what I'm doing and, people get curious
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So before we dive into infusions for MS and what that might look like with home infusion options, let's first talk about the process. So if someone with MS or otherwise, not everyone who listens to the MSing Link Podcast has MS, or maybe they know someone with the condition, let's first talk about what different types of medications might be possible, and I guess follow-up question would be, if it's an option for your medication, what's that first step that you [00:11:00] would take?
so here's the truth. The truth is, through all of the facts and stuff like that, if there is a medication that requires an IV Our team will work with you. Of course, it's dependent on insurance. insurance can be very finicky these days, there is that.
But we definitely provide a wide range of specialty medications, and that's, across the board for anything. our biologics go across the board, whether it's MS, it's IVIG, for PANDAS, let's say, or, it's really anything, juvenile arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis. It goes across the whole span of things.
So, with MS specifically,we do administer Ocrevus. we do now do Briumvi. We have Tysbari, Lemtrada, [00:12:00] and Novantrone, if I said that correctly. Some of them are hard. So what happens is that, even if you already have a diagnosis, let's say you already have a diagnosis, and you've been doing treatment through your doctor at the hospital, or they've set you up at a clinical IV center somewhere closer to your home or something like that.
what would happen is, first you would probably wanna talk to your medical provider and ask them if they've ever worked with home infusion options, because, that's kind of the first thing to ask. and if not, the best thing you can do is educate your doctor about it and say, "I heard there's this great service.
I'm wondering if there's any way I can get approved to do this." And so we offer, like I said, everything in-house. So you call Home Infusion Options. An intake person will talk to you. They will go through [00:13:00] what your insurance is, what your benefits are, and then jump into trying to get the pre-authorization, and that whole process, which as a patient of gastroenterology and been on lots and lots of things like that and also handling and managing my daughter, nothing is better than having someone sweep in and take care of
For sure. Yeah
really, really helpful. So they start with the pre-authorization. They figure out what you need, how often you need it. it is completely patient-centered, scheduling So it's around your clock. It's not around their clock. So if you are going out of town tomorrow and you need to get it today and you're not home from work until 6:00 at night, they'll come at 7:00 and they'll take care of it.
And they come in, they set up, and they take care of it, [00:14:00] and they oversee everything. They often do labs, for your provider and then they send all the information back to your provider. So they're really an extension of your provider. They're really a team behind you, and I think that, mentally that's really, really helpful is to know that you're not alone
Right. You've got more people in your corner and that are
got
for you and with you.
your life Yeah.
Yeah
I should have maybe asked this in the beginning. Where is this available? We've got a lot of listeners just everywhere throughout the US as well as other countries. Where I guess where is this available?
Who can access this?
Anywhere. Anywhere.we will find a nurse. Um, we have a huge, huge, collection of nurses throughout the country. We work with them. We only work with nurses who have had a minimum of seven years experience in an [00:15:00] ICU or hospital setting, trauma setting. They are trained then by our team to be absolute experts in IV therapy.
This is not just like going to a phlebotomist, getting your blood drawn, having them miss five times, and the worst. So they actually pride themselves on trying to always get the first poke, and they're good at that. but they're extremely specialized, and they're really experts in not only the medication, but in how to administer it
there's a lot of people who get IVIG, and, a lot of the things you hear is that maybe people have a hard time with IVIG therapy. what our nurses do is they do it very slowly, and they do it in a way that hopefully our patients get as [00:16:00] few side effects as possible. And they stay for the whole thing too.
That's the other big point, is that our nurses are with you until the end of the infusion, then they check all your vitals, they make sure you're okay, they schedule the next one, and they do all of that before they leave
Wow. That is so unique. So it's not necessarily like this company is based in New York and therefore if you're in New York State or surrounding states you're covered, but more so it's this like there's no actual home location. It's just that
nurses
we are based in Chicago. our company is Chicago-based, and, our pharmacy and offices are downtown. but for example, my daughter was training in California last year for figure skating. And, we had our nurse, and she flew out a number of times to Gabby to get her [00:17:00] infusions done before she had to, like, travel somewhere or something like that.
So there's no limit. There really is no limit. We have college kids in Colorado. We have college kids in, Missouri. W- They're all over the place. and as far as being able to treat people in, in different locations, we have a whole process of making sure that happens.
Okay. So if someone is listening and they live in Belgium, they could see if there's a nurse that would be able to come to them
I'm not sure Belgium.
Okay. I just threw that as a random example.
I, I'll, I'll preface it with the United States.
Okay.
But that would be really cool. I'll fly to Belgium.
Yeah, yeah.
That would be so cool. No, yes, all over the United States. And,the best thing you can do is go to our website, www.homeinfusions.net, and, sign up to talk to an intake [00:18:00] person and get the ball rolling.
These people, they know what they're doing. They have their own insurance, administrators. They have everything of their own, so they'll get it done. They get your co-pay assistance taken care of. You literally never see a bill
So, and how long does the process take? If someone is hearing this episode and they're interested and they have an infusion coming up next week, is that too short? Can it happen within a few days? What does the timeline look like typically?
As long as insurance clears it, it can be done right away.
Okay
And, we always have ways to appeal and to talk to the doctors, the prescribing doctors to figure out how to help get that done
Okay. So that's a good segue into my next question, which was how do the doctors stay in the loop of did you get the infusion? Like, is there any communication back and forth that needs to happen between the nurse and the doctor?[00:19:00]
Always. So for example, my daughter gets her labs done while the nurse is here because why poke twice? And,those results go directly to her physician.
Mhm
physician reviews them, and then I get a note through MyChart or Epic telling me from the doctor, " The labs look great," or, "She's a little deficient in vitamin D," or whatever it may be.
"She looks a little anemic right now. The numbers are kind of low." There's always that interaction. And actually, our referral for home infusion options came from my daughter's gastroenterologist.
Mm, that's
so it's really cool. It's really cool
So what does the cost typically look like compared to if someone were to just go to the MS clinic or wherever they're currently going for their infusions?
The cost, it's all built in. [00:20:00] And like I said, I literally don't see a bill. There's no extra cost for it. It's all inclusive. And,that's what makes it special is that you don't have someone here and then worry about how are you gonna pay for it, or what's the cost gonna be, or what's the copay, or any of those things.
You don't have to worry about that. They take care of all of your copay assistance. They take care of everything
Wow. So the copay would just be the same as a copay that if you were to go in person to a clinic?
Correct. Correct. Correct
Man, this sounds
Well, it,
ideal, I guess I would
say. Just so personalized
You know, it's one of those things of why would you not want this?people get fearful that it's not as safe, for example, as a hospital. These are nurses who are so well-trained in trauma, like I said, ICU. these are nurses who are top of the line.
Mm-hmm.
is there [00:21:00] anyone who wouldn't qualify for it or that you feel like they might not be the best match? 'Cause as of right now it feels like why would you not, like truly, like everyone with any infusion. But is there anything that you're like, "Oh, you know, if you have this or if this is a concern, then it might not be the best fit," or is it truly just this is something that everyone should be considering?
Oh, it's something everybody should be considering. The biggest roadblock I would say that we face ever is insurance. Um, you know, insurance is finicky and, for us it's an out-of-network benefit. So it's great, it works, and I know moving forward that my daughter always is going to need an out-of-network benefit on her insurance
Mm-hmm. Wow. This has been so helpful and hopefully for a lot of people eye-opening, just 'cause I truly think a lot of people don't even know that this exists for them. So you [00:22:00] mentioned the website that people can go to to see if it's, if there's an option or a nurse or a connection in their area.
So can you repeat that? And then we'll also put it in the show notes as
well
course, of course. It's
www.homeinfusionoptions.net. And, we have a presence on Instagram, we have a presence on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on all over the place. And it's a big team, and everybody is working together to offer the convenience and flexibility that they can do to each and every patient
That's so amazing. is the social media handles on all of those places Home Infusion Options?
Yes.
Okay. We will link those
It's either home infusion options or HIO
or College Connect. We have a separate account for College Connect.
Gotcha. Okay. Awesome. So, so helpful. Thank you so much for helping to bring awareness to this option for [00:23:00] people. I think with MS, so much can feel like a barrier that having an option like this can make a world of a difference in so many ways, physically, but also mentally and emotionally. So I really appreciate you sharing this with us today
Oh, absolutely. the one great thing is that if you're having one of those days that you just don't feel good and you wanna just be in sweats all day, you don't have to run and get in your car and drive somewhere. They really just come to you. You can watch television. You can eat your snacks. we had one little boy that would play basketball while he was getting his infusion out back.
it's it's really about wherever you are and wherever you're gonna feel comfortable, we're gonna come to you
Is that normal? You mentioned earlier too, like if you've got to go to work that day, they can go to work. I mean, if you'd want to be doing that at work. Is it normal for other home infusion options to do that, to kind of follow you around to wherever it's best for you?[00:24:00]
I think we are the only one-stop shop. we are so all-inclusive,and from what I hear from other patients that have been at other infusion companies, it's more corporate possibly. This is not corporate. This is an individually owned business, and we stick to what our morals and ethics are, and as long as the patient can heal, and the best part, heal in your own home or heal in your own space,
that's the win for us
thing is, we're more than an infusion provider. We're a trusted partner to your medical team. We're a trusted partner to all of our patients, and we advocate for our patients. And for example, if an insurance claim, doesn't get approved, Home Infusion Options has staff dedicated to [00:25:00] working on getting that done and advocating for you.
And, I know at least that when you're in this long process of diagnosis and then you have to start this treatment, and it's a lot,
Right
to then know that there is someone out there advocating for you, it's very- Yeah
Yeah. That is, n- nice that it's not something where, like, you just get approved or you don't get approved, but there's, again, actually more people working for you and, and with you to try to make this happen
Absolutely. Absolutely.
That's amazing.
Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for listening to today's show. I am so grateful to have you as a listener. If you'd like extra resources, such as a video of one of my seated exercise classes, my favorite core exercises, and the opportunity [00:26:00] to ask me your questions, head to missinglink.com/insider. That link will be shared in the show notes, along with links to my social media handles.
If you loved this episode and think a friend or family member with MS would benefit from listening, please go ahead and text or email this podcast to them right now. Sharing this podcast will help me educate and empower as many MS warriors as possible. Thanks again for joining, and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the MSing Link Podcast
