I'm weary of seeing the BCBS of North Carolina TV ads telling me how caring they are and how they will take care of me and my family in times of health crises. As an allied medical professional in the oncology field providing an effective liver cancer treatment to hospitals and patients, I see BCBSNC refusals to pay for this treatment for their enrollees every week.

Compare their policy of noncoverage with the positive payer policies of BCBS of Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Vermont, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Empire BCBS, Federal BCBS, Horizon BCBS and Wellmark BCBS -- all covering their enrollees for liver microbrachytherapy.

Key medical practitioners from North Carolina have written to and met with BCBSNC to express the importance of this procedure to extending the quality of life and survival of patients with liver cancer, yet BCBSNC invariably rules the procedure is experimental, despite 6,000 patient treatments, positive payer policies by sister BCBS companies and approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

So please, BCBSNC, stop the talk unless you can walk the walk.

Joseph Saldarini
Greensboro

The writer represents Sirtex Medical USA Inc., developer of SIR-Spheres microbrachytherapy for the treatment of liver cancer.