Montana

#HospitalFails

While nonprofit hospitals are organized as charities to deliver affordable health care to those in their communities who need it most, many of America’s nonprofits are making big money. Nonprofit hospitals around the country are paying executives exorbitant salaries and adopting policies that put profits over patients, like pursuing predatory collection practices, closing hospitals that are critical to underserved areas but aren’t performing financially, and failing to provide free or reduced-cost care for qualifying low-income patients. Too often, these policies are combined with poor health outcomes for patients.

Last updated: January 7, 2026 at 3:03pm

Charity Care Spending

Montana had a “fair share deficit” of nearly $45 million for the fiscal year ending in 2021, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. In other words, Montana’s nonprofit hospitals pocketed a whopping $45 million more in tax breaks than they spent on community benefits and charity care for low-income patients. In fact, the Lown Institute found that nearly 48% of Montana’s nonprofit hospitals ran a fair share deficit in the 2021 fiscal year.¹

Hospital Collection Policies

Most hospitals (59%) allow at least one extraordinary collection action, like wage garnishments, selling debt to a third party or denying non-emergency care. Of the 27 Montana hospitals investigated by the Lown Institute from June 2024 to April 2025, nearly 26% had written policies allowing them to take legal actions against patients for unpaid medical debt. Two Montana hospitals’ policies even allowed them to deny nonemergency care to patients who owe the hospital money.²

Medical Debt and Consumer Protections

Medical debt adversely affects many Americans. Given vague and rarely enforced federal medical debt protections, states are on the frontlines of patient medical debt protections. Unfortunately, Montana:

Does not cap interest charged on medical debt.
Does not have standards for monthly payment plans or cap the payment amounts for these plans.
Does not ban health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit-scoring agencies.
Does not stop health care providers from placing liens on a person’s home or foreclosing on their home to collect a medical debt.
Does not limit the use of wage garnishments to collect a medical debt.³

Price Transparency

A survey of 2,000 hospitals nationwide from July to November 2024 found that just 1 of the 8 Montana hospitals reviewed – a mere 13% – had complied with federal regulations requiring all hospitals to post their prices online and make them easily accessible and searchable.⁴

The Burden of Medical Debt in Montana

In Montana, an average of 7% of adults in a given year (or 60,000 people) reported having medical debt, according to a Peterson-KFF analysis of data from 2019 to 2021.⁵

Medical Debt in Collections

Based on credit data from August 2025, Urban Institute found that 4% of Montanans have medical debt in collections, more than the national average of 3%. In Montana’s communities of color, 7% of people have medical debt in collections, exceeding the 4% national average.⁶

Hospital Overcharging

On average, from 2020 to 2022, hospitals in Montana charged patients with private insurance an average of 253% of what they charged Medicare patients for the same services.⁷

Hospital Safety

Montana ranks 33^rd in the country for hospital safety, with barely 22% of its hospitals earning an ‘A’ grade for safety.⁸

Grade: #HospitalFail

Lown Institute, “Lown Institute Hospitals Index: 2024 Results Fair Share Spending,” April 2024, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/hospital-fair-share-spending-2024/
Lown Institute, “Hospital Financial Assistance and Debt Collection Policies,” June 2025, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/report-hospital-financial-assistance-and-debt-collection-policies/
Commonwealth Fund, “State Protections Against Medical Debt: A Look at Policies Across the U.S. in 2025,” July 2025, https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2025/jul/state-protections-against-medical-debt-look-policies-across-us
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “Seventh Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report,” November 2024, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/seventh-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report-november-2024, pg. 28
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, “Access & Affordability: The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States,” September 2024, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/#Share%20of%20adults%20who%20have%20medical%20debt,%20by%20state,%202019-2021
Urban Institute, “Debt in America: An Interactive Map,” November 2025, https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/?type=medical&variable=medcoll&state=30
Rand Corporation, “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 5.1 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative,” December 2024, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1144-2-v2.html
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, State Rankings, Fall 2025, https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/your-hospitals-safety-grade/state-rankings

Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) is a coalition of advocates and former policymakers working to provide a voice for patients in the health care debate as they demand better care. CQC is led by a board of directors that includes the Honorable Donna Christensen, physician and former Member of Congress; Jim Manley, former senior advisor to Senators Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid; Jason Resendez, community advocate and health care strategist; and Mary L. Smith, former CEO of the Indian Health Service.