Northern Montana Hospital converting to critical access hospital

Havre's hospital is in the process of converting into a critical access facility.

Northern Montana Vice President of Regulatory and Community Services Christen Obresley said the change, which the hospital hopes to have in place by July 1, should be essentially invisible to its patients and members of the community.

"The patients won't notice anything," she said Thursday.

Obresley said the change is more in accounting, how information is reported to Medicare and Medicaid and how the hospital is reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid.

"The only thing that changes is the information that's included...