At least 15 staff members of Billings Clinic Bozeman have been laid off from positions that range from advanced practice providers, to leadership and support staff.

Some of the cuts included physicians whose contracts will not be renewed when they expire over the next 60 to 180 days, Billings Clinic officials said Thursday. Areas affected at the Bozeman campus include urgent care, behavioral health, ophthalmology, pediatric cardiology, general surgery, neurology and urology.

The Bozeman campus is part of the Billings Clinic health care system, which has affiliations with hospitals and clinics across Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota.

An architectural rendering of the new Billings Clinic Bozeman.

“Eligible employees affected by these changes will be reassigned to other positions wherever possible and will have the ability to apply for open positions within Billings Clinic,” said Zach Benoit, the Clinic’s community relations manager.

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Billings Clinic opened its $45 million, three-story, medical campus on a 58-acre site in northern Bozeman in 2022.

Hundreds of hospitals across the country are still struggling to recover from the fallout of the Covid pandemic when financial constraints along with worker burnout and other factors combined to leave even the strongest hospitals reeling. The problem is especially acute for rural hospitals.

The healthcare advisory services firm Chartis said in February that its most recent analysis discovered that at least half of the nation’s rural hospitals are losing money. Chartis said that 50% total is the highest percentage it has seen in more than a decade.

Billings Clinic isn’t alone in trimming health care workers in Bozeman since the pandemic. In early 2022, Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital was operating at a nearly $15 million loss, prompting the elimination of 53 positions by either layoffs or unfilled open positions.

“I don’t want to leave. I love my job, I love my patients, I have good bosses and I love Montana,” she said. “It’s just so hard to see what hospitals are going through right now. Part of it is their own fault when it comes to management, but part of it is also political. Politicians need to deal with the federal and state reimbursement rates before we lose more hospitals, or worse, lose patients.”

Billings Clinic also mentioned reimbursements rates that haven’t kept up with inflation, along with “steeply increased costs for labor and supplies” in its response to the Bozeman layoffs. Patient volumes in Bozeman also haven’t achieved projections, said the Clinic's Benoit.

“We are reviewing the entire operation to improve financial performance,” Benoit said. “Billings Clinic Bozeman will remain in Bozeman in the spirit of having been invited into the community by local physicians nearly 20 years ago.”

He said the hospital is “committed to continue being part of the Gallatin Valley medical community by adapting our focus to Primary Care, Pediatrics and OB/GYN, along with sustainable specialty care that supports these services.”

Bozeman Clinic will also continue to provide walk-in care, lab, radiology, pharmacy, physical therapy, and specialty outreach services.

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