General Surgery Physician Salary in Montana (2026)
A General Surgery physician practicing in Montana can expect a base salary inside the national General Surgery band of $370K to $535K, with the median tracking close to $425K. The Montana variation on that number is driven mostly by anchor-employer comp structure in Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Helena, Kalispell and by shortage-area incentive stacking outside those metros — not by Montana cost-of-living alone.
General Surgery compensation snapshot for Montana
- Typical Montana base range
- $370K – $535K (national median $425K)
- National demand signal
- high
- Top Montana hiring metros
- Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Helena, Kalispell
- Montana HPSA / shortage posture
- Nearly the entire state carries HPSA designations
- Primary board
- American Board of Surgery (ABS)
Where General Surgery offers land highest in Montana
Montana runs a heavily rural recruitment market with Billings Clinic, St. Vincent Healthcare, Logan Health, Bozeman Health, and a deep frontier critical-access network. For General Surgery, the highest-comp Montana opportunities I see are typically not in the urban core of Billings — they sit in rural and HPSA-designated counties where the same General Surgery role carries a 10-25% base premium plus signing bonuses of $30K-$100K and loan repayment of $50K-$200K layered on top of base. That stacking can push an Montana General Surgery offer comfortably above the $535K national ceiling in year-one total cash.
Montana incentive programs that boost General Surgery take-home
The Montana Institute of Medicine and Humanities Health Care Workforce Loan Repayment Program supports primary care, behavioral health, and dental providers in HPSA sites. The Montana Conrad State 30 J-1 waiver program is consistently filled. NHSC loan repayment is widely used across Montana's deep critical-access network. Several Montana frontier-county recruitment grants supplement these for the most isolated placements. For General Surgery specifically, these federal and state programs frequently add the equivalent of $30K-$60K per year of pre-tax value over the first three years of service.
How I benchmark a General Surgery offer in Montana
When a General Surgery candidate sends me an Montana offer, I check three things in order: (1) where the base lands inside the $370K–$535K band relative to MGMA regional percentiles, (2) the wRVU conversion factor and ramp/threshold structure, and (3) the call burden and stipend. Montana's licensing pace also matters for ramp timing: The Montana Board of Medical Examiners licenses with a typical timeline of 60-90 days for US-trained physicians.
Engage a Montana General Surgery compensation review
Email hire@physicianrecruitment.com for a written Montana General Surgery compensation review of any offer you've received, at no cost. We benchmark against MGMA/AMGA percentiles and the active Montana General Surgery pipeline we're working in real time.