Detroit (john D. Dingell) Va Medical Center vs Va Gulf Coast Healthcare System

Detroit (john D. Dingell) Va Medical Center is in Michigan; Va Gulf Coast Healthcare System is in Mississippi. Cross-state comparisons need to account for the Medicare wage-index adjustment, which can move payments by 30% between high-cost-of-living states and low-cost-of-living ones, before any hospital-specific factors enter. Average payments are close: $9,372 vs $9,481, only 1% apart. With cost close to tied, the quality measures do most of the work in the value-rubric comparison. Detroit (john D. Dingell) Va Medical Center comes out slightly ahead.

With costs this close, the choice between these two hospitals turns on the quality measure set, geographic convenience, or insurance-network status rather than payment-per-procedure differences.