Namaskaar!

As informed earlier, in KOA's second board meeting,  it was unanimously decided that for a medical appeal, donations from KOA should be directly paid to the service provider and not to the families. Details are at:

http://koausa. org/downloads/ BODMeetingMinute s-21Jan07.pdf

In response to this resolution, we received feedback from members that this cannot work in all medical cases. In most of the cases, patients in India seek medical treatment on a day-to-day basis directly from a doctor, without ever getting admitted into a hospital. In such cases, it is not practical to pay directly to the service provider. Keeping the community feedback in mind, a vote for an amendment to the original policy was sought from the board members. The amendment was to split the medical cases into two separate categories. 

Category 1. Those that require heavy-duty fund-raising (like Atul Handoo's case) when the patient requires a specialized treatment at a particular hospital/medical provider of his/her choice, and

Category 2. Those who are going to a doctor occasionally for some of these ailments that do not require that much expenditure, say $500-$1000 per patient (one time deal).

For Category 1, KOA will stick to the policy of paying directly to the medical provider, and for Category 2, KOA should pay directly to the patient on a case-by-case basis under the condition that KOA gets proper verification from the patient and his/her medical provider.

This amendment was approved by the board. The final votes from the board were as follows: 

Thanks and best regards,

Lalit Koul

Secretary, KOA