Billings Clinic-Logan Health CEO Says Merger is Making Headway with Statewide Expansion, Future Rebranding
Healthcare officials at a Nov. 19 Kalispell Chamber of Commerce luncheon said Logan Health has doubled its size in the last decade while officials warn of significant financial impacts surrounding the potential rejection of Medicaid expansion in 2025
By Maggie Dresser
Since Logan Health announced the nonprofit hospital was merging with Billings Clinic last year, officials say the integration is progressing as it continues to absorb clinics across Montana and Wyoming, becoming the largest independent health care system in Montana.
At the Nov. 19 Kalispell Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Red Lion Inn, Billings Clinic-Logan Health Co-CEO Kevin Abel provided an update on the consolidation progress, which will eventually include a name rebranding by 2026. The announcement comes just a few years after Logan Health rebranded from Kalispell Regional Healthcare (KRH) in 2021.
In the last decade, Logan Health has expanded its home base in Kalispell and has more than doubled its directory of clinics from 27 to 68, including healthcare facilities on the Hi-Line, as well as in Eureka and Polson, while Billings Clinic has expanded across eastern Montana and now has six clinics in Wyoming.
“There’s been a lot of growth and consolidating with hospitals has been a major piece of what’s happened in this industry and the healthcare environment over the last two decades,” Abel said.
As a major employer across the state, Logan Health currently has 4,500 staff while Billing Clinic employs more than 4,000 individuals.
In addition to a growing quantity of employees, the healthcare system is gaining highly specialized physicians like neurosurgeons and oncologists and now has capabilities like robotic surgeries.
Logan Health’s demand for care has doubled in the last decade, with 10,000 admissions, 27,000 surgeries, 600 births and 548 emergency flights in 2023, a growth chart Abel attributed to the 2021 merger with North Valley Hospital in Whitefish.
Billings Clinic-Logan Health in October partnered with Oracle Health to provide an integrated IT platform to consolidate medical records, which will begin in 2025.
As the merger continues, Abel stressed the importance of maintaining a stable workforce as the hospital reduces its reliance on travel nurses, which peaked at 200 during the pandemic and is now down to a “handful.”
“We want to retain and recruit a highly skilled workforce … we are an economic engine in our community,” Abel said.
In the months leading up to the 2025 Legislative Session where lawmakers will decide the fate of Medicaid expansion, Abel said a failure to reauthorize will pose serious consequences.
Historically, Medicaid applied to the elderly population, disabled individuals, children and pregnant women before it was expanded in 2015 to cover adults at 138% of the federal poverty level. The expansion program, 90% of which is funded by the federal government, will expire next year if lawmakers do not vote to reauthorize it.
The failure to reauthorize Medicaid expansion would impact 7,500 statewide jobs and the $457 million in personal income and $775 million in economic activity that it generates.
“One of our concerns as a healthcare organization is that it helps stabilize our provider prices,” Abel said.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires hospitals provide emergency care to an individual regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status, will likely cause private insurers to raise prices to cover those costs that would have otherwise been covered by Medicaid.
“If somebody shows up in an emergency room and they’re pregnant or they have an emergency condition, we take care of them regardless of the ability to pay without Medicaid,” Abel said. “The concern is – would we have to work with other private insurers to beef up the payments to cover those additional uninsured?”
Abel also stressed that Medicaid exists for individuals who are experiencing financial difficulty, and it provides medical access to 85,000 Montanans. Research shows that Medicaid enrollees are more likely to seek medical care preemptively in non-emergency facilities like doctor’s offices, which prevents a far more expensive emergency room visit.
Without the Medicaid expansion funding, it is estimated that Logan Health will risk losing $68 million.
“If not renewed, it will have a significant financial impact to Logan Health,” Abel said.