I’ ve been thinking of building a house in the bahamas and I was wondering what would go in to doing what I am doing at home on my own in the islands? Outside of buying a machine (where do I buy one from?) and some type of filtration (which is the most cost effective?) and finding someone to service both, what else would I need to think about for either the summers or winters?
I don’t know the laws in the Bahamas but if you were state side your first priority should be in getting a Nephrologist to help you. All dialysis equipment state side requires a prescription to purchase. As the companies which sell the equipment will not sell directly to individuals for obvious reasons. How do they even know you know how to safely run the machines. How are you going to pay for repairs and maintenance?
I hate to be a wet blanket, but if Medicare has been paying for your dialysis, you may not realize that Medicare doesn’t t pay for healthcare outside the U.S. or one of its territories except for emergencies…and ongoing dialysis is not considered an emergency. If you’re looking at building a place in the Caribbean, you might want to look at Puerto Rico or the American Virgin Islands which are U.S. territories and where care is monitored by the same system in the U.S…including Medicare payment for dialysis. Incidentally, there are 3 clinics in Puerto Rico that offer some type of home hemodialysis. At this time, there are no Virgin Island clinics listed in the Home Dialysis Central database that told us they offere home hemodialysis. It’s possible one of the clinics there has started offering home hemo though.
If you have a way to pay for dialysis in the Bahamas and want to live there temporarily or even permanently, you should probably contact the dialysis clinics in the Bahamas (see www.globaldialysis.com) to see if any support home hemo patients. You might also want to read information on the Bahamas (www.bahamas.gov.bs) and contact the Bahamian consulate about what you’d need to do to build there.