PLANTATION, Fla., Jan. 6, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- MEDirect Latino Inc. (Pink Sheets:MLTO) (http://www.medirectlatino.org), the first national provider of direct-to-consumer Medicare reimbursed medical products focused exclusively on chronic diseases afflicting the Hispanic community, today announced the expansion of mobility products now available to the Company's new and existing customers. The expanded line of mobility products includes walkers and canes, which are eligible for reimbursement under the Medicare Modernization Act.
All new product offerings support the needs of the Company's diabetic customers and are designed to enhance their quality of life; a core mission of MEDirect Latino. The Company's decision to expand healthcare products and services to its client database is driven by customer demand, product quality analysis and the Medicare reimbursement regime. Additional demand is generated by MEDirect Latino's 2006 national television advertising campaign in the United States and media plan in Puerto Rico. The Company continues to expand its product and services to meet the on-going needs of its customers, thereby spreading acquisition costs over a series of products and services. The Company anticipates 60% of its current customers may exhibit the medical necessity for these types of mobility devices.
Mr. Raymond J. Talarico, Co-Chairman and CEO of MEDirect Latino, stated: "MEDirect Latino is fulfilling our mission in becoming the leading direct to consumer provider of medical products and services to the Hispanic Medicare eligible community. We have found that our customer has needs for additional products and services that go beyond the diabetic products that we have traditionally offered. We will expand our Medicare reimbursable product lines as we continue to identify our customer's growing needs. We project that these two additional mobility product lines will increase our gross revenues for the remainder of our current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2006, by $1,250,000 of gross revenues and over $350,000 in net profits."
The Company will announce its December 2005 operating results in a press release immediately after the close of the market on Monday, January 9, 2006.
ABOUT MEDIRECT LATINO:
MEDirect Latino (Pink Sheets:MLTO) (www.medirectlatino.org) is a rapidly growing, uniquely positioned provider of direct-to-consumer Medicare reimbursed medical products focused exclusively on chronic diseases afflicting the Hispanic community in the United States and Puerto Rico. MEDirect is the only company positioned to serve the U.S. Hispanic healthcare market as a direct-to-consumer Medicare provider on an authentically national level. The Company's current focus is the distribution of products for the treatment of Type II diabetes specifically because of its disproportionate impact and increasing diagnosis rate within the US Hispanic population, noting an incidence of 120% higher than among non-Hispanic whites. Type II diabetes was also targeted because of its unique status within the Medicare reimbursement regime and because of its high degree of correlation to other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. These other conditions represent considerable future market potential that will allow MEDirect to efficiently scale its model by leveraging its existing client base and infrastructure.
The current Hispanic market for MEDirect's products is conservatively estimated at approximately $748MM in the continental United States. The size of the opportunity is understated by such figures as an estimated 1.2 million of the over 4.1 million Hispanics in the United States over 65 eligible to receive Medicare benefits are currently collecting these benefits with an estimate that over 1.4 million of those Medicare-eligible Hispanics have diabetes (implying a potential continental U.S. market for MEDirect products of approximately $1 billion).
Safe Harbor Disclosure:
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, commonly identified by such terms as "believes," "looking ahead," "anticipates," "estimates" and other terms with similar meaning. Although the Company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's projections and expectations are disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by such cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions.
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