Okay, I got the information about what they paid. It turns out that they also negotiated on my behalf. In other words, I paid 10% of a reduced amount. The math does work out. They only negotiated it down 5% though, so I thought I was missing out since on the web it says that insurance companies will negotiate it down more like 40%.

The other thing that makes it more palatable is that I hit my yearly maximum out-of-pocket amount, which is good because I may have other surgeries coming up.

I guess the max out-of-pocket is sufficient protection financially. It still was more than I was told to expect, but I guess it is not open-ended which is what I was scared of.

It also means that negotiating my portion down further has limited value -- if I negotiate it down, I'd just have to pay more out of pocket again later for my next procedure.

So if I have to have any surgeries, guess I should schedule them this year.

But thanks for the advice. This was the first major medical insurance claim I'd had in the US. I'm used to the Canadian system where you don't even see the bill at all. Here it is a full-time job watching for and managing these bills -- just had to send in a payment for $2.76 for a blood test ...

I find this thread very interesting about "de-sleeved". After having my penile implant removed and I could no longer have an erection, Dr. Kimmel de-sleeved my penis removing all skin between the head and my body, he then sutured it to my body leaving only the head. He also removed my scrotum at that time.

Thanks for sharing.

The whole penile implant thing has always seemed pretty weird to me. What was the experience like having one of those? It seems so intrusive, and once it is removed it seems like the penis is usually pretty ruined ...

One question I have is that if the flesh of the penis is not erect, even with an implant inside it must be pretty weird to have intercourse with. And I usually have sex pretty rough so I find it hard to picture how that would stand up and not get painful and bruised (as the softer flesh gets rubbed onto the implant framework). On the other hand, if it worked to allow you to maintain for hours a big rock-hard erection that felt natural (to your partner) I guess that would be cool from the perspective of pleasing the ladies (or guys if that's your thing).

SplitDik (imported) wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:23 am Thanks for sharing.

The whole penile implant thing has always seemed pretty weird to me. What was the experience like having one of those? It seems so intrusive, and once it is removed it seems like the penis is usually pretty ruined ...

One question I have is that if the flesh of the penis is not erect, even with an implant inside it must be pretty weird to have intercourse with. And I usually have sex pretty rough so I find it hard to picture how that would stand up and not get painful and bruised (as the softer flesh gets rubbed onto the implant framework). On the other hand, if it worked to allow you to maintain for hours a big rock-hard erection that felt natural (to your partner) I guess that would be cool from the perspective of pleasing the ladies (or guys if that's your thing).

The old saying is, you can take a nap while have sex, LOL. The implant stretches the penis and the lenth never changes. When pumped up it just tighten the penis and the head next hardens. There are many who have had there's to come thougn the sides of the penis and mine was starting to happen about 7 years. It took a while to heal and get use too. It never felt like the real thing. Of course the magic pills weren't out when I had mine done.