Benefis Health System acquired the Missouri River Medical Center (MRMC) on July 1; this includes the critical access hospital, the new rural health clinic, and the nursing home.
Benefis had been operating with MRMC through a management contract since 2015.
Louie King, President of Community Hospitals, will continue to run the hospital as well as Benefis Teton Medical Center in Choteau.
The transition to Benefis Missouri River Medical Center was a seamless one, as this merge will only strengthen the MRMC, according to the CEO of Benefis, John Goodnow.
Goodnow said this will positively impact the community of Fort Benton and Chouteau County.
“A big advantage for the community is that up until now they have paid taxes to support the facility,” said Goodnow. “Now that they are a part of Benefis, they won’t have to pay those taxes anymore, so it is a little bit of a tax decrease for the community.”
All employees of MRMC became Benefis employees, pushing them onto the Benefis pay scale which allowed for pay raises for those employees as well as an updated benefits package.
Mike O’Hara, chairman of the hospital board, said they will continue to see remarkable improvements and that this will be much better in the long run for the community as a whole.
“It has been a wonderful process and it is working very smoothly,” said O’Hara.
Benefis now operates four campuses in Great Falls (East, Central, West, and Grandview), critical-access hospitals in Choteau and Fort Benton, four outpatient healthcare locations in Helena, and outreach offices across Montana.
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