The "Isang Hakbang Medical Foundation", "IHMF", or "One Step Medical Foundation" is a non-stock, non-profit medical foundation incorporated in February of 1990. Its primary objectives are:
IHMF had its beginnings in the early 1980's. At that time the Philippines was going through a severe economic recession. It was a time for hardship for many people, and the Talon General Hospital (TGH) had very low income due to many unpaid hospital bills. In order to continue providing quality medical services without itself going under, officers of the TGH considered setting up a donee foundation, with the donations credited by the Bureau of Internal Revenue or BIR. This means that an individual, company or organization that made a donation would be able to claim this as tax credits. The foundation can then help by paying for the hospital bills of those who could not afford to, at cost (discounted). That way the hospital also recovered part of the cost involved in the services rendered.
Today, the IHMF has expanded in scope to cover other hospitals and clinics in the province of Tarlac although its main base of operation continues to be at TGH. The hospital, through the foundation, accepts charity cases sent to it from different hospitals and clinics by Department of Social Welfare (DSW) units. This usually involve Laboratory and Ultrasound services with an occasional hospital admission.
The foundation continues to be hampered by money issues as it has been from the start. There is no source of income other than from donations. Two years ago, the number of trustees was expanded from 5 to 15 and outsiders have been invited to join. In spite of this, free clinics are not announced until two or three days before for fear of running out of medicine to give away. Even then, there was more than 500 consultations for the half day that the clinic was open back in August of 1998.
Since its establishment, the foundation has been run by volunteers, none of whom has ever received a salary or compensation.
The 2010 officers are as follows:
The IHMF Inc. is a non-stock, non-profit charitable foundation duly registered with the Philippine Security and Exchange Commission (SEC# 173446, Feb. 1990) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (Certficate of Registration Number 2052, Dec. 1991) as a tax exempt organization. As such, donations made to the organization can be claimed as deduction for tax purposes in the Philippines.