Updated out of pocket implant costs for a few docs (Aug 2019)

[William8]

Dr. Christine does live webinars for other physicians once a quarter or so. I watched on of them and you see that he is very precise is his methods. If you google him you see a number of good resources.

Thank you!

[jfruedam]

ok, so I am refloating this post. Basically this is my situation: I have 18.000 USD saved, and those are my whole life savings, nothing left after that. I am 30 and live in a country where currency is highly depreciated against dollar value. Nothing I can do about that, I have a well paid job where I live.

So basically this would be a one shot thing for me if I travel. If something fails, then I am fucked. Zero money for revisions or something like that. That is a big concern tbh. I know implants have a life time warranty, but is it associated with the doctor itself? Let say it fails and need a revision, would the company make the "warranty" valid if the revision was done by a local urologist, that way I would only have to pay for the surgery costs should the device fail. Honestly don't know how this works. Just thinking about a back up plan, because face it, I have to be realistic here and think about worst case scenario.

So is that, or going to a local urologist which I can afford, and at least in that case I would have accessible medical company should any issue arise. But the best one I could find is someone who has had some training with Dr. Perito technique, that's it.

So, that is the point I am right now. My company has actually an open position with the possibility of relocation to Europe, but not a "fancy" country, Bulgaria. I think I am a good fit for it, and it would allow me to start earning money in Euros, but honestly I don't think if in my current situation I would be able to handle things, I am extremely mentally and emotionally vulnerable.

Just wondering if someone has some advice for me. What would you do in my position?

[newbie443]

ok, so I am refloating this post. Basically this is my situation: I have 18.000 USD saved, and those are my whole life savings, nothing left after that. I am 30 and live in a country where currency is highly depreciated against dollar value. Nothing I can do about that, I have a well paid job where I live.

So basically this would be a one shot thing for me if I travel. If something fails, then I am fucked. Zero money for revisions or something like that. That is a big concern tbh. I know implants have a life time warranty, but is it associated with the doctor itself? Let say it fails and need a revision, would the company make the "warranty" valid if the revision was done by a local urologist, that way I would only have to pay for the surgery costs should the device fail. Honestly don't know how this works. Just thinking about a back up plan, because face it, I have to be realistic here and think about worst case scenario.

So is that, or going to a local urologist which I can afford, and at least in that case I would have accessible medical company should any issue arise. But the best one I could find is someone who has had some training with Dr. Perito technique, that's it.

So, that is the point I am right now. My company has actually an open position with the possibility of relocation to Europe, but not a "fancy" country, Bulgaria. I think I am a good fit for it, and it would allow me to start earning money in Euros, but honestly I don't think if in my current situation I would be able to handle things, I am extremely mentally and emotionally vulnerable.

Just wondering if someone has some advice for me. What would you do in my position?

I was much in the same as you years back. I was able to get to a point where I could borrow what I needed to travel for this. My local urologists only do 2-3 of these a year and the doctors and the patients they implanted that I talked to all said I would lose an inch in length. I pulled the pin and rolled the dice and traveled.

So my advice would be to go see the local doctor who has some training with Dr. Perito. And tell him what you are considering. And that Dr. Perito is one of the doctors you are looking at. I would ask if he would be able to provide follow up care for you if you did go to another well known doctor. I would also ask about revision surgery. My local doctor said they do not do reoperations and send patients out somewhere for them so you really need to ask. Just in case you have a problem with the pump or tubing. And I would research the Perito trained doctor to find out how many implants he does a year. Maybe even ask to speak with patients he implanted. See if you can find out what is the doctor's infection rate is. Does the doctor try to minimize or eliminate size lose. Get all the information you can. If you decide your best choice is to travel then do your research on that to. Now this is just what I would do. No one can or should tell you what you should do. For me I went into surgery knowing I had done my research and made the best choice for me.

As far as the original topic. I would add this link. https://surgeo.com/penile-implant

I have heard good things from others on this site for:

Dr. Blick Phoenix AZ $19,800

Dr. Hakky Snellville GA (Atlanta) $18,100

Best of luck to you going forward with.

[Agfa13]

My insurance is UnitedHealthCare, so compared to you guys, my cost was pretty low.
But I found out the hard way (no pun) to ask about Drs involved, anesthisiologists, covered surgery, hospital/facility fee, etc. Spoke to the surgery center, asked for names, looked them up...basically, I did some homework and footwork because of the surprise from the 1st surgery 2 years ago.
This 2nd one, implant surgery, should be covered all around, but I am not taking that for granted, as I know anesthisiologists are usually the biggest culprit for out of pocket costs that most people do not think/ask about.

[Pete5829]

Just wanted to say, I’m in Canada and it was free! Had to wait about 5 months but surgeon was excellent, aftercare has been great and hospital was state of the art. I was implanted with the AMS 700 MS.

[St1pan2019]

Hey Pete.... just sent you a PM

[jump.ship]

The first surgery is everything. You can go to the top doc to get fitted correctly. Then if you can't afford to go back, the local surgeon can just follow what the top doc did for revisions.

If you need more money, then wait. This is my top priority in life right now so that is what I am doing. Waiting and saving. Boring, but I want the best, so I must wait.

[Agfa13]

Curious....these out of pocket costs. Your insurance does not cover ANYTHING on implants?
Does this include people flying elsewhere to get the implant?

[newbie443]

The first surgery is everything. You can go to the top doc to get fitted correctly. Then if you can't afford to go back, the local surgeon can just follow what the top doc did for revisions.

My local doctor said revisions are more difficult and enough so that they do not do them. So check about this first.

[newbie443]

Curious....these out of pocket costs. Your insurance does not cover ANYTHING on implants?
Does this include people flying elsewhere to get the implant?

I have an EPO health care plan and spend aprox. 17,000 every year for insurance and health care. My plan covers only my local docs to do implant but not all the charges. My local doc's leave a man inflated for 8 weeks before activating. They require an over night stay at the surgery center (not covered by insurance) and my insurance only pays so much for the device. Most likely enough to cover malleable so I would have had to pay the difference in price for a Titan or LGX. And those costs do not go count on my deductible or max out of pocket. My local guys do 2-3 a year. They say this is a very difficult surgery and do not do revisions. They all say I will loose at least an inch with surgery as did the patients I talked to that had this done by them. They either could not or would not provide infection rate information. This would have cost me 4-7K out of pocket and the business office wanted cash up front.

So I decided to travel out of state and pay 100% out of pocket. My EPO (Exclusive Provider Organization) plan only had coverage for a handful of doctors in part of my home state. Outside that zero coverage. The doctor I went to required 3 checks. The total being 24K. That covered everything for the procedure except my surgery health certification. I had that done with my local primary care doctor and it cost me under $200. Remember to keep records of travel and lodging cost as well as meal receipts. All of those can be used when you file your yearly tax return.