May 8, 2026

The President’s Message is published in the MHA Weekly News Report, a member-only publication of the Montana Hospital Association. To subscribe, click here.

Across the country, and here in Montana, hospitals are facing a growing narrative that places blame for rising healthcare costs squarely on hospitals and health systems. The issue is more complex than the headlines suggest.

Recently, the American Hospital Association pushed back on those claims. The article is worth a read. As the AHA stated, meaningful affordability solutions must address “the full picture — not narratives that assign fault to one part of the healthcare system.”

No one disputes that we have a problem. Hospitals are navigating extraordinary financial pressures while continuing to provide 24/7 care for every patient who comes through the door. Labor shortages, rising pharmaceutical and supply costs, inflation, administrative burdens imposed by insurers, and chronic underpayment from public programs all contribute to the challenge. In fact, a recent AHA analysis found that hospital expenses continue to grow faster than hospital prices. Montana hospitals can vouch for that.

Montana hospitals know we have a responsibility to be part of the solution. That is why the Montana Hospital Association continues to support collaborative efforts that improve affordability, transparency, and access to care.

Our Montana payer-provider workgroup is bringing insurers, hospitals and other healthcare providers together to identify practical, Montana-based solutions that reduce friction in the system and improve the patient experience. It also keeps key players at the table, talking, and working together.

We also continue to advocate aggressively for programs like 340B, Medicaid, and rural stabilization initiatives that help hospitals stretch limited resources and keep care available close to home — especially in rural and frontier communities.

Our hospitals continue to develop various partnerships to pool resources and bring down costs. Some observers grumble about affiliations, but the reality is that they are often essential to addressing the problem. It’s one of the few things that hospitals can fully control.

At the same time, we can’t lose sight of what is at stake. Montana’s larger hospitals are often in the crosshairs of these debates. Our larger hospitals also are those that subsidize essential services relied upon across the state, including trauma care, behavioral health, neonatal services, and specialty care that smaller facilities cannot provide independently. Policies that weaken those hospitals ultimately threaten access for patients statewide.

No single sector can solve healthcare affordability alone. It will take providers, payers, employers, policymakers, pharmaceutical companies, and government programs all working together — with facts, collaboration, and patients at the center of the conversation.