The stated mission of The Greater New York Hospital Association is simple enough: to help members deliver “the finest patient care in the most cost-effective way.” But it’s more complicated than that.

While the association, which represents health care providers at the epicenter of the pandemic, is a nonprofit organization, it has the balance sheet of a robust private company, pays executive salaries that top $3 million and spent millions more to lobby in Washington for some of the nation’s most profitable hospitals.

So when it came time to secure its share of the record $3.6 trillion in federal stimulus money, the association was well positioned. It helped steer over $11.5 billion in funding to the state, with billions more on the way soon, in a competition with other hospital groups, major corporations and thousands of small businesses.

“On the surface, the purpose (of the stimulus) is to relieve financial…