Blue Cross North Carolina Sued Over Prostate Cancer Treatment

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina was hit with a proposed class action by two prostate cancer patients who say the company wrongly refuses to cover a well-established cancer treatment by incorrectly classifying it as experimental.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, challenges the insurer’s policy on proton beam radiation therapy, a cancer treatment that proponents say is more precise than traditional radiation and thus less likely to damage healthy tissue and organs. The company uniformly designates this treatment as experimental or not medically necessary, when the medical ...