Dr. Eid doesn't work with my insurance... would Dr. Karpman be a good second choice for an implant?

[WindWizard]

I had finally made the decision to go full steam ahead with an implant, and I had set my mind on Dr. Eid. I wanted to go with the best of the best for my implant surgery, I am young, and will be living with an implant for the rest of my life so I don't want to skimp out. I chose Eid because everything I have heard for the man has been praise. He is an exceptionally skilled surgeon who has been at this a long time and I was really feeling confident with my choice.

However, as I am still young, I am on my veteran father's insurance, Tricare. Tricare does cover penile implants, so I thought it would be fine, but unfortunately, after calling Eid's office to schedule a consultation, I was informed that Eid does not work with Tricare. Unfortunately, my immediate second choice, Kramer, also apparently does not work with Tricare. This has been really upsetting for me, as I really had my mind set that I wanted one of these guys to be the one to do my surgery. I've been in contact with my insurance company, and will continue to do so now that the weekend is over, but right now it looks like going with Kramer or Eid would be an exorbitant cost. I don't have that kind of money now. It's true that my father is pretty well-off money wise, and it's possible that he would agree to cover the surgery cost with Eid if I really pushed for him, but I'd rather not cost him that money.

Doing more searching revealed that Dr. Edward Karpman in CA is an in network provider with Tricare. This means that there would probably be very minimal costs for choosing him as my implant surgeon. I've heard some really good things about Karpman by people who have went with him, and my understanding is that he does a lot of implants a year and has a generally good reputation.

That being said, I can't help but feeling unsatisfied. I'm sure he's a good surgeon, but I simply haven't heard much about him. He isn't mentioned as much as Kramer, Eid, Perito, etc. That doesn't mean he's bad, but I really would have liked to go with an implant superstar so to speak. I also understand that he only does infrapubic, and frankly, with the reading I've done I'd really feel more comfortable with the doctor using the penoscrotal approach on me. I've also heard that he recommends following a VED regimen prior to implanting in order to retain maximum length. This makes me a little bit wary of his own skills as a surgeon to retain length, as I know that Kramer and Eid both promise that they will retain your length without any VED regimen beforehand. I've also heard that Karpman greatly prefers (or exclusively uses? Haven't gotten a clear answer on this) the AMS models over the Titan. Personally, I will leave the model up to the surgeon implanting me, but I would really like to have the surgeon honestly make an unbiased decision when choosing the best system for me. (I certainly wouldn't complain with a Titan, as girth is one thing that I am somewhat lacking)

And lastly, on his website, Karpman discusses shockwave therapy for ED in a very positive, hopeful light, and he apparently offers it to patients at his practice. As someone who has personally spent a lot of time and money undergoing shockwave therapy with no results, I am skeptical of the ethical leaning of a doctor who offers a very untested and preliminary treatment at such cost. I think it is far too early for doctors to be offering this treatment without a lot more clinical trials and studies on the treatment.

Anyways, that's where I'm at... I want to feel confident and assured with whatever surgeon I choose, and a lot of what I know about Karpman doesn't sound nearly as appealing as Kramer or Eid. That being said, I would love to hear people who have been implanted by Dr. Karpman weigh in. Because if he honestly is a fantastic implant surgeon, then going with him would be the obvious choice. Otherwise, I could keep trying to get Eid or Kramer, if possible...

[tomas1]

This has to really be a tough and important decision to make at your age.
I considered Dr Kramer for my surgery, but finally took a chance on my urologist.

He never did a stretch test, didn't ask me to use the VED (although I did use it prior to surgery).
He did tell me he wouldn't install the LGX if the implant was over 18cm or longer. He claimed it would be floppy and I know that's bull shit. I also asked for scrotal approach.

After surgery, I woke up with the CX implant, but it was sized perfectly. I suppose that's the most important thing other than the small chance of infection. He used the scrotal approach. I also ended up with more RTE length than I would have liked.

If not for the bias against the LGX, and the $500 billing surprise, I'd recommend him.

[SW0110]

You are at that tough fork in the road. I also initially had decided on either eid or kramer for my implant. Due to some health issues with my wife and scheduling additional surgeries for her and wanting an implant asap, i did not want to wait a year for my implant.

I researched a lot of docs as well as i could which were within 3 to 4 hours of my house. You can go to both ams and coloplast websites and look for docs who implant close to you. In my case i found a few within 3 hours of me. I only picked what coloplast listed as centers of excellence and one specific doctor. I then called their office and said i wanted that doc to call me back to discuss an implant option and procedures. No callback, croosed of my list. Doc did not call back but nurse did, crossed off my list. I gave everyone a week to call back.

The docs who called back had to answer my questions totally. I finally went with a coloplast center of excellence in cincinnati. The doc does around 75 a year and penoscrotal, which is what i wanted due to prior extensive stomach surgeries. Said he would let me talk with prior patients if i wanted. Did proper tests, venous leak, trimix, etc.stretched me out and said expect that for length. No guarantees but it was something. I also had developed peyronies and lost about an inch of length.

Decided to trust him and went ahead. 4.5 weeks since my titan. It was a great surgical experience. He did a great job. I hoped for about 20 cm, got 19. Tips are well up in glans though. Prestretch was a little over 6. Have 6 right now when pumped up.

Do the best research you can. Know what questions you need answered, make sure you get them, then make a decision.

Good luck.

[ED2013]

I highly recommend Dr. Karpman. He does phone consultations.

[warrenw]

Dr Karpman was on my shortlist when I was researching surgeons two years ago. He's reasonably close to me and has a great reputation, but he didn't meet a couple of the criteria I had set for a surgeon. At that time, and this may have changed now, he only did infrapubic surgery and I already knew I wanted penoscrotal. And secondly he only implanted AMS, and I wanted a surgeon who could use either AMS or Coloplast.

I found that both Kramer and Eid were very good about offering former patients to talk with me. Kramer put me in touch with a bicyclist he had implanted since that was a concern of mine. Eid had a mult-page "List of Patients Willing to Discuss Their Experiences" sorted by state and country with full contact info that I found very helpful.

If you say where you are geographically there might be other recommendations.

[Larry10625]

Dr Karpman was on my shortlist when I was researching surgeons two years ago. He's reasonably close to me and has a great reputation, but he didn't meet a couple of the criteria I had set for a surgeon. At that time, and this may have changed now, he only did infrapubic surgery and I already knew I wanted penoscrotal. And secondly he only implanted AMS, and I wanted a surgeon who could use either AMS or Coloplast.

I found that both Kramer and Eid were very good about offering former patients to talk with me. Kramer put me in touch with a bicyclist he had implanted since that was a concern of mine. Eid had a mult-page "List of Patients Willing to Discuss Their Experiences" sorted by state and country with full contact info that I found very helpful.

If you say where you are geographically there might be other recommendations.

Yes but, Eid only uses Coloplast.

Larry

[Dave52]

larry
Once again you're wrong I was offered a choice by Dr. Eid AMS or Titan I chose Titan but could have had AMS. I thought that you had Spoken to him.
Dave

[Zxylpk]

I chose Dr. Karpman because he was on the West Coast, and came highly recommended. If I had to do it again, he would be my first choice regardless of his location. Check his credentials and talk to him.

[alibaba]

I've talked to patients of Karpman and he was on my possibility list of being a truly nice and well liked guy just like the other two until I found out he does infrapubic only. Had that, done that. No chance in my lifetime will I do that again. I do again state he seems to have many happy customers. In the meantime, consider supporting universal healthcare. This "Well ain't that a bitch" feeling every time insurance or doctors don't provide the service we need is very very old and disheartening, especially in your case where the CEO of United Healthcare gets $83,000,000.00 a year. Likely they will cover urethral stricture surgery and such with Dr. Eid but offer him so little for implant surgery he figures they are not worth the bother. Sucks! I notice on my bills that some items the doctors will be paid by UHC the obscene amount they bill and other things they will pay 17 cents on the dollar. Just depends on their contract and the salesman that makes it.

[WindWizard]

I've talked to patients of Karpman and he was on my possibility list of being a truly nice and well liked guy just like the other two until I found out he does infrapubic only. Had that, done that. No chance in my lifetime will I do that again. I do again state he seems to have many happy customers. In the meantime, consider supporting universal healthcare. This "Well ain't that a bitch" feeling every time insurance or doctors don't provide the service we need is very very old and disheartening, especially in your case where the CEO of United Healthcare gets $83,000,000.00 a year. Likely they will cover urethral stricture surgery and such with Dr. Eid but offer him so little for implant surgery he figures they are not worth the bother. Sucks! I notice on my bills that some items the doctors will be paid by UHC the obscene amount they bill and other things they will pay 17 cents on the dollar. Just depends on their contract and the salesman that makes it.

Hey Ali,
I know you had a really bad experience with your first infrapubic approach by Milam. It's guys like you that make me really concerned about even considering going with a doc who is doing the infrapubic approach. That said, Karpman does seem to be an implant surgeon legend in his own right. Everyone who has had him has had nothing but positive things to say, and I know that he's been at this for a long time. If you don't mind me asking do you think your negative experience with your initial implantation was due to the infrapubic approach or just the way Milam did it? I know that a lot of guys here seem really against the approach in general, but again, everyone I've heard from who has gone with Karpman has obviously received an infrapubic approach and it has reportedly worked out great for them. Perhaps it's nothing to worry about with a good doc like Karpman? IDK, this whole thing is really stressing me out.