KabaFusion’s Masood on his passion for home infusion

CERRITOS, Calif. – Dr. Sohail Masood has received many accolades in his more than 30 years in the home infusion industry, but the most recent – the 2022 Gene Graves Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Home Infusion Association – is the most meaningful, he says. 

“This one is really my peers telling me what I have done means a lot,” said Masood, founder and CEO of KabaFusion. “It has nothing to do with how much money you make; it’s really having a passion for home infusion. I am very proud of this award.” 

Masood spoke with HME News recently about the “revolution” he’s seen in home infusion and his hopes for its future. 

HME News: What are some of the most signification changes you’ve seen in home infusion over the course of your career? 

Dr. Sohail Masood: Most important was really the improvement in technology – not just pumps, which were high tech, but even simple elastomeric balls were helpful to give infusions without anyone knowing. Especially in the early 80s – the height of HIV and AIDs – a lot of drugs were given intravenously, and the patients could be just walking around with it in their pocket. Making patients who are getting infusions ambulatory, in my mind, was the biggest revolution. 

HME: Do you feel that payers understand the value of home infusion? 

Masood: At one time, home infusion was a savior for these payers because we took the patient out of hospitals at 1/10 the cost but they started cutting us down. “Oh, Company A can do it for this amount. Why should we pay Company B this much.” Their concept of the cost is really just the cost of the drug and what we do to manage the patient has zero value and that is the saddest part, that Medicare still hasn’t seen that value. NHIA keeps fighting for it and hopefully there will be a point where we can get paid. 

HME: What do you see on the horizon for the home infusion industry? 

Masood: My hope is there will be a point in my lifetime where everybody will know what home infusion is. Even now, talking to doctors, (sometimes) they don’t know what it means when I tell them what I do. I hope that at one point, home infusion will be as well-known to patients as the idea they don’t have to go to emergency rooms, they can go to urgent care.