An International Student in the U.S. seeking treatment

[lime]

Hi, I just discovered this forum today, and this is my first post. I'm so glad to find people who are like me here. You make me not alone. I'm an international student in the U.S who is in the second year of college. As early as 13 years old, the age when I started masturbation, I noticed the lump on my penis, and I have lived with it for 6 years. I did not clearly remember if I had injured my penis, but I remembered that the scar suddenly appeared in one day, and after that, I could not maintain a normal erection. Now my penis is tilted to the right during the erection, and the angle is about 45 degrees. The curve is smooth, so it may have reached 60 degrees at the glans. There is no pain during the erection for me.

I'm unsure about if it is congenital or Peyronie's disease since I hadn't seen a doctor, but I had a lump on my penis so I highly suspect that it is Peyronie's disease. I knew things went wrong when I was 13, but I was too shy to see a doctor. Now, I have decided to make a change,  but I don't know where to start.

The medical system in my home country is totally different from that of the U.S, so I do not know how things go here. The university bought every student an insurance, and it is managed by United Healthcare. I did not know if the treatment of Peyronie's is covered by the insurance, and I'm very afraid that I'm going to spend a lot of money. I knew that the university had assigned me a primary health provider in university's hospital, but that hospital even does not have a urology department, so I highly suspect that the doctor will have no idea about I want to say. Then where else can I go? I found a list of doctors who had collaboration with United Healthcare, but I did not know if I could contact them directly for treatment and if there would be more discount since they have collaboration with my insurance company. Please help clear my doubt and tell me the steps which I need to follow. Thank you very much!  

[betterbend]

Dont know all the details about UNH student plan, but you should be able to call them and find out if outpatient office visits are covered, and is there a website with participating providers.  Then you can find a urologist in the plan.  You should confirm with the office they take your plan, however just because they take your plan, doesn't mean the initial visit is free, you have a deductible, copay, etc.  

Here is how a typical plan works:

For example, you visit a dr in the plan.  He bills $500 for the visit, and submits it your plan.  You plan says he is under contract and only gets $130 for the visit.  Now your plan has a $1000 deductible and a $40 office visit copay, they would apply the $130 to your 1000 deductible so now your deductible is down to $870.  The dr. office will send you a bill for $130, which you have to pay. If he is in the plan he cant charge more than the contracted rate.    You would continue to pay the full contracted rate until you paid $1000 out of pocket, then all further office visits would be $40 only.  The deductible is applies to your overall medical expenses in that plan, so for example if you had gone to a regular doctor for the flu, his fees would also be counted towards that same $1000...  sounds a little confusing, but the insurance company should be able to explain how your plan works ...  don't know if that is helpful and what hospital doesnt have a urology dept???

Your plan might make you see a primary doctor first and get a referral to see a specialist.  Other plans let you go straight to a specialist without seeing a primary care provider (pcp)

[lime]

Thank you very much for the information. Unfortunately, the hospital that is managed by the university does not have a urology department(They have women's health, but no men's health). I just arranged an appointment for Friday and hopefully, they could refer me to a urologist.