The 10 Best Assisted Living Facilities in Great Falls, MT for 2024

Some seniors find that moving into an assisted living community in their retirement years offers the best balance of the independence they want and the support they need. In Great Falls, seniors pay an average of $4,150 a month for a room in such a facility, which is lower than the Montana average and the U.S. average.

In this guide, seniors considering Great Falls as a retirement location can get an overview of the area’s relevant factors for their age group and see a comparison of regional prices for assisted living care. There’s also a list of government- and nonprofit-run programs that serve the city’s seniors.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services licenses and oversees long-term care homes in the state. It divides them into three major categories for assisted living, memory care and nursing home care, and has specific criteria regarding which kinds of facilities may serve which types of residents.

• Great Falls’ cost of living can significantly benefit seniors on a fixed income. It’s 10% lower than the national average and also roughly 4% cheaper than the Montana average. Notably, the cost of transportation is 26% lower than the national average, so active seniors who enjoy exploring the city may see higher-than-average savings from living here.
• Tax rates are another potential money-saving benefit. Like the rest of Montanans, residents of Great Falls pay no sales taxes whatsoever; the national average sales tax is 7.3%. The flip side, though, is that the state’s income taxes are slightly higher than average. Residents see a rate of 6.9%, a bit higher than the U.S. average of 4.6%.
• Seniors who don’t mind very chilly winters are rewarded with exceptionally temperate summers that see average highs ranging from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. It doesn’t rain quite as much here as it does elsewhere, with an average yearly rainfall of 14 inches versus 38 inches nationwide, but there’s significantly more snow, with an average of 58 inches a year versus 28 inches nationwide.
• Great Falls’ air quality is another one of its major draws. On a 1–100 scale, with 100 representing the best air quality, Great Falls scores an 80, handily beating the national average of 55. However, the area’s water quality is below average for the nation, scoring a 31 against the U.S. average of 55.
• With Montana being an exceptionally large and sparse state, hospital access is inconvenient in much of it, but Great Falls residents have access to multiple campuses of Benefis Health System within city limits. According to U.S. News & World Report’s annual roundup and ranking of the nation’s hospitals, Benefis Health System gets high marks for its heart failure and kidney failure treatment. 

The Genworth Cost of Care Survey 2021 reports that seniors in Great Falls pay $4,150 a month on average for their assisted living care.

Great Falls’ average costs are $300 cheaper than the state average of $4,450, which in turn is $50 less than the U.S. average of $4,500. The other two Montana cities from Genworth’s survey are both more expensive; seniors in Billings pay $4,564 a month, while those in Missoula pay $4,650 a month. To the south, in Casper, Wyoming, seniors see slightly higher costs of $4,844 a month. To the west, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, they see prices of $4,675 a month.

Only a few other types of long-term care are available in Great Falls. The most expensive is nursing home care, which is over twice as costly as assisted living care at $8,553 a month. Home care, whether in the form of in-home care or the more medically robust home health care, averages $4,698 a month. In most markets, adult day health care is the least expensive option for senior care, but Genworth reports no day care-specific price data from Great Falls.

While many families use their own funds or personal assets to pay for assisted living, there are plenty of additional options to cover these costs. Some additional ways to finance assisted living costs include:

• Veterans Benefits
• Life Insurance Policy
• Long-Term Care Insurance
• Reverse Mortgage

For more information about different ways to finance assisted living, visit our Assisted Living in Montana page.