Hip & Knee Replacement Cost in Montana — Compare All Hospitals
Major joint replacement or reattachment of the lower extremity — most commonly elective hip or knee replacement surgery.
What this hospital charge usually covers
The gross-charge number above is the hospital's facility bill for hip & knee replacement. Here's what's typically inside that price (typical inpatient stay: 1–3 days):
Included in the hospital bill
- Operating room time and surgical-team facility fees
- Inpatient room, nursing, and routine medications during the stay
- Implant-related facility charges (varies by hospital — sometimes itemized separately)
- Recovery-room and immediate post-op monitoring
- On-site physical therapy started during admission
Usually billed separately
- Surgeon and anesthesiologist professional fees (billed separately, often by an unaffiliated practice)
- Pre-surgical imaging (MRI/X-ray) and lab work
- Outpatient physical therapy after discharge
- Home health visits or skilled nursing facility stays if needed
Quality signals to check before picking a hospital
Price alone won't tell you which hospital does hip & knee replacement best. These are the CMS quality measures that matter most for this specific procedure. Click any hospital below for its full profile, then look for these:
Hip/Knee Complications
Tracks how often patients have a serious surgical or medical complication within 90 days — the single most direct quality signal for this surgery.
Hip/Knee Readmissions
How often patients return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Lower means better recovery planning and follow-up.
Surgical-Site Infection (SSI)
Joint replacements carry a real infection risk because implants can't fight bacteria the way native tissue can. Lower SIR is better.
Patient Experience (HCAHPS)
Communication with nurses, pain control, and discharge planning directly affect recovery for major orthopedic surgery.
When the cheapest hospital may not be the best fit
The list below sorts by price. For hip & knee replacement, the lowest price isn't automatically the best fit — these are situations where it's worth weighing additional factors against price. None of the below is medical advice; talk to your doctor about what applies to your specific situation.
- For patients with significant heart, lung, or bleeding-disorder risk, complication and rescue rates often matter more than price.
- Revision surgery (replacement of a prior implant) is technically harder and tends to do better at a high-volume center.
- When extensive post-acute rehab is expected, a hospital with an on-site inpatient rehab unit may be worth a higher total cost.
- When a specific surgeon only operates at certain facilities, surgeon experience usually outweighs price differences across facilities.
Questions to ask your hospital or insurer
The gross charge is the starting point. These are the procedure-specific questions to ask before you commit:
- Is the surgeon, anesthesiologist, implant, and on-site physical therapy included in this estimate?
- Is the orthopedic surgeon and anesthesia group in-network for my insurance?
- What is the typical out-of-pocket once my deductible and coinsurance apply?
- What is the hospital's surgical-site infection rate for joint replacements?
- Will I be discharged home or to a skilled nursing facility? Is that cost covered?
Hospitals ranked by gross charge
- 1
Glendive Medical Center
Glendive, MT
Gross charge $20,023 - 2
Central Montana Medical Center
Lewistown, MT
Gross charge $26,546Cash pay $22,564 - 3
Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital
Glasgow, MT
Gross charge $32,527Cash pay $29,274 - 4
Barrett Hospital & HealthCare - Hospital
Dillon, MT
Gross charge $42,798Cash pay $40,658 - 5
Sheridan Memorial Hospital Association
Plentywood, MT
Gross charge $49,344Cash pay $39,475 - 6
Livingston HealthCare
Livingston, MT
Gross charge $49,409Cash pay $46,939 - 7
St Peters Health
Helena, MT
Gross charge $51,685Cash pay $33,595 - 8
Community Hospital of Anaconda
Anaconda, MT
Gross charge $115,708Cash pay $86,781 - 9
Mccone County Health Center
Circle, MT
Gross charge — - 10
Prairie Community Hospital
Terry, MT
Gross charge — - 11
Big Sky Medical Center
Big Sky, MT
Gross charge —Cash pay $53,366
8 Montana hospitals list a gross charge for hip & knee replacement under the federal price-transparency rule, with quoted prices spanning $20,023 to $115,708. The cheapest is Glendive Medical Center in Glendive; the most expensive is Community Hospital of Anaconda in Anaconda. The state average sits at $48,505.
What's listed is each hospital's gross charge — its published price for the inpatient stay, before any insurance discount. Insurance plans negotiate substantial discounts, Medicare and Medicaid pay fixed federal rates, and uninsured patients can usually qualify for a cash-pay discount. But the gross charge still works as a useful benchmark: a hospital that lists hip & knee replacement at twice the price of another typically negotiates higher rates with insurers too, and quotes more for uninsured patients.
If you're scheduling hip & knee replacement in Montana, sort the list below by price, then click each hospital name to see its quality profile — CMS overall star rating, surgical-safety measures, readmission rates, patient-experience scores. The cheapest hospital isn't always the right call. Teaching hospitals often charge more because they take complex cases, and a higher-rated community hospital may deliver equivalent outcomes for a straightforward case at a lower price. Use the price column to narrow the field; use the quality data to make the final call.
Pricing comes from each hospital's Machine-Readable File (MRF), published under the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Montana hospitals missing from the list either don't perform hip & knee replacement in volume, haven't published a usable price for DRG 470 in their most recent MRF, or fell below our data-quality thresholds (we filter out clearly erroneous entries like $0 charges). The list refreshes as hospitals update their files.