Healthcare Roundup: Medical Tourism Goes Pro, HCA CEO Out, Chicago Hospital Fails, and More

(MoneyWatch)  More health-insurance plans paying for overseas care -- Medical tourism, or sending patients to cheaper overseas hospitals, appears to be the latest new tool for health-insurance companies and employers seeking to cut costs. Among the most recent developments: Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina created a medical-tourism subsidiary that maintains an international network of hospitals, while WellPoint plans to roll out a medical-travel benefit for a Wisconsin graphic-arts company. [Source: WSJ]

HCA CEO to retire by year end -- The CEO of hospital giant HCA, Jack Bovender, will give up his title at year end, but will remain executive chairman of the privately held, Nashville, Tenn.-based company. Current president and COO Richard Bracken will take the helm effective Jan. 1. [Source: Modern Healthcare]

Envision hospital in Chicago files for Chapter 11 -- Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital, which has already announced that it intends to close by the end of 2008, has filed for protection from creditors. The 364-bed hospital, owned by Envision Hospital Corp. of Scottsdale, Ariz., has posted losses for years. The city of Chicago is reportedly eying the hospital's real-estate, which lies on the shore of Lake Michigan south of downtown. [Source: Modern Healthcare]

Medical teams miscount sponges, instruments in 13 percent of surgeries -- A recent study found that teams manage to overlook sponges and surgical instruments in almost one of every six surgeries. Although that doesn't mean the surgeons necessarily left an item inside a patient's body -- which now can cause Medicare or private insurance to deny payment for the procedure -- it highlights the difficulty of keeping track during complex operations. Bar-coding and other technologies offer some promise. [Source: American Medical News]

No consensus on value of Pennsylvania Blues merger -- Two studies commissioned by the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance failed to indicate whether state regulators should approve the merger of Independence Blue Cross and Highmark, foundering instead on the question of how to measure market share of the combined managed-health concern. [Source: American Medical News]