Va Eastern Colorado Healthcare System vs Christus St Vincent Regional Medical Center

Va Eastern Colorado Healthcare System is in Colorado; Christus St Vincent Regional Medical Center is in New Mexico. 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: $11,427 vs $11,550, only 1% apart. With cost close to tied, the quality measures do most of the work in the value-rubric comparison. Va Eastern Colorado Healthcare System 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.