HTNYS History

Healthcare Trustees of New York State (HTNYS) was established in 1981 to address a growing need for governance education for New York’s healthcare trustees and to provide them with new opportunities to participate in healthcare advocacy.

The 1970s was a challenging decade for healthcare due to New York State’s highly regulated environment. Trustees from hospitals across the state and the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), then known as the Hospital Association of New York State, recognized that these challenges demanded knowledgeable and engaged healthcare trustees. HANYS surveyed its members to determine how to best meet that need and deliver valuable, relevant trustee education.

In 1979, HANYS’ Board of Trustees established an Ad Hoc Committee on Hospital Governance, which included trustees from Buffalo General Hospital, New York University Medical Center, Long Island College Hospital, Woman’s Christian Association Healthcare System, and Albany Medical Center Hospital. The Committee discussed the need for trustees to be educated to help them fulfill their fiduciary duties and other governance responsibilities.

In September 1980, the HANYS Board of Trustees approved the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Hospital Governance to begin a trustee organization to help educate hospital trustees and encourage their participation in public policy forums. Hospital Trustees of New York State changed its name to Healthcare Trustees of New York State (HTNYS) in November 1996.

For more than three decades, HTNYS has contributed recommendations to many policy debates at the state and federal levels and has promoted policy positions and legislative memorandum on issues such as uncompensated care, nurse staffing ratios, medical malpractice issues, bad debt and charity care pools, public ownership of hospitals and nursing homes, addressing the problem of the uninsured, organ donation, state budget issues, and state and national healthcare reform. In addition, trustees contribute more than twenty percent to the HANYS Political Action Committee (PAC).

Today, HTNYS continues its mission of educating trustees during this time of healthcare transformation and engaging them in advocacy. In 2016, HTNYS received an American Hospital Association Most Valuable PAC Player Award for trustee contributions in 2015. HTNYS continues to be nationally recognized for its education, specifically its trustee conference.