How guest dialysis works when you travel
Booking a chair away from home, step by step.
Quick answerIf you have in-center hemodialysis, you can usually keep your schedule while you travel by booking a "guest" (also called transient or visiting) treatment at a center where you're going. Your home unit normally arranges it and sends your records. Start about 6 to 8 weeks ahead, longer for busy places and holidays, because guest chairs are limited.
Step by step
- Talk to your home unit first. Tell your social worker, nurse or the unit's travel coordinator where and when you're going. Your care team decides whether a trip fits your treatment.
- Pick two or three centers. Any company's center can take guests, not only your own chain's. Find them by state or popular trip, and note the ones with the shift you want.
- Let your unit send the request. The visiting center usually asks for recent lab results, your dialysis orders, recent treatment records, your medication list, a recent history and physical, and your insurance details. Some also ask for a chest X-ray or an EKG.
- Wait for the written yes. The center confirms the days, the chair time and its own doctor for your visit, and often checks your insurance first.
- Then book the room. Choose a place to stay close to that center: our center pages sort them by walking minutes, with a driving estimate where the walk is long.
- Confirm again before you go, and carry copies of your records and medication list in your bag.
Insurance, in plain words
- Medicare generally covers dialysis at Medicare-certified centers anywhere in the US, the same way it does at home. Medicare: dialysis services and supplies.
- Medicaid often pays only in your home state. Ask your state's program before you go.
- Private and Medicare Advantage plans may need approval ahead or have network rules. Ask your plan, and ask the visiting center to check your coverage.
- Outside the US, Medicare usually doesn't pay. Ask your plan, and leave extra time.
Questions to ask the visiting center
- Which days and which shift can I have? Is there a shift at 5 p.m. or later?
- Can you match my treatment time and orders?
- What will I need to pay, if anything?
- Where do I park or get dropped off, and which door do I use?
Home dialysis
If you do peritoneal or home hemodialysis, ask your home team about traveling with your equipment or having supplies shipped ahead; that is arranged with them and your supplier, not a guest center.
Where this comes from
This page summarizes, in our own words, travel advice from the National Kidney Foundation, the American Kidney Fund and Medicare (read November 2026). It isn't medical advice: your own care team's guidance is the one that counts.
We don't rate dialysis centers or their care. For Medicare's own quality information, see Medicare Care Compare.