Traditionally associated with standalone not-for-profit community hospitals, corporate memberships are often referred to as “hospital associations” and have existed since the early 20th century. In today’s transforming healthcare industry, hospital associations are increasingly becoming barriers to strategic actions, especially forming partnerships. Standalone hospitals with a corporate membership association model should give serious consideration to the elimination of the association from a governance role by amending its bylaws.

In this article, The Governance Institute Advisors discuss the history of corporate associations as well as recent changes creating a need for the standalone hospital to retire the corporate association model.