Montana ranks below the national average on senior health, according to a recent study by America’s Health Ranking’s Senior Report, falling at 35 in the nation.

The senior report, the first year such a study has been done by America’s Health Rankings, was sponsored by the United Health Foundation. 

Minnesota is the top state for senior health, with Mississippi at the bottom of the pile at 50th. Wyoming is just ahead of Montana and South Carolina just behind, at 36th place.

Susan Kunda, in-home services program manager at the Agency on Aging, said lack of resources are the No. 1 concern for Montana’s seniors.

“We are constantly looking for doctors to take Medicaid patients,” she said. “They have resources available, but they are overbooked — horrendously so. We tend to get a lot of lower-income people, so we may be slanted.”

The states were judged on a 34-point rubric that falls under five major headings. The headings, Behaviors, Community and Environment, Policy, Clinical Care and Outcomes, judge senior health from top to bottom.

Minnesota also scored No. 1 in overall health. Montana was 29th. 

There is a lot of bad on the report for Montana. The state is 49th in regard to dedicated physicians for the elderly. The Flathead Valley has only a handful geriatricians currently working, although North Valley Hospital is in the hunt to bring more in.

Jennifer Allen, the new program director at North Valley Embrace Health, an outpatient mental-health program for seniors, said the lack of geriatricians can put strain on the rest of the health-care industry.

“Often primary medical physicians take on the brunt of the health work,” she said. “Not everyone can be a geriatrician. It’s always a constant struggle. We know the baby boomer generation is coming.”

Lisa Sheppard, the director of the Area IX Agency on Aging, agreed.

“There are so many seniors in the valley, I would be willing to bet a large number of physicians’ caseloads deal with seniors,” she said. “You may find that these physicians are altering their practice knowing that they are dealing with an older population.”

Montana also ranks 49th in the senior fall rate and 47th in dedicated health-care providers and diabetes management.

The Policy section of the report, which deals with low-cost nursing home care, credible drug coverage and geriatrician shortfall, is poor enough that Montana is actually 48th in this section.

The average annual cost for nursing homes is more than $70,000, Sheppard said, and between 65 to 80 percent of that is paid with taxpayer money.

The Agency on Aging is striving to keep seniors out of homes, and the best way it has found to do that is to keep them involved in the community.

Isolation can be as harmful to a senior’s life as any other factor, Kunda said. 

Even for the seniors who can afford quality care, there are trends in Montana that detract from overall health.

Ben Boulter, administrator of The Springs at Whitefish, noted that the cafe at the assisted living center will still serve fried food to seniors, something he’d never see in his native Massachusetts.

“There’s still a real rugged independent spirit around here,” Boulter said. “It would be interesting to see how much money Montana actually saves by seniors not seeking out health care.”

The Behaviors section of the survey likewise reveals some of this independent streak. High percentages of seniors smoke, drink, do not visit the dentist and are underweight, while there are low levels of obesity, physical inactivity and difficulty with pain management.

While there are many issues to deal with, it is not all gloom and doom. More than 31 percent of Montana’s seniors volunteer on an active basis, 10th in the nation. Very few seniors are readmitted to the hospital or have multiple chronic conditions and the hospital death rate is fourth-lowest in the country.

The future of senior health in the Flathead Valley is difficult to foresee, but it is expected to grow by more than 50 percent by 2030. Obesity in the Flathead looks to keep pace and could rise 12 percentage points, as high as 29.3 percent, for future seniors.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.