PLANTATION, Fla., Nov. 9, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- MEDirect Latino Inc. (Pink Sheets:MLTO) (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 record results for October, 2005 in gross billings, new patient shipments and call volume. MEDirect Latino reports gross billings of $418,406 during the month, a 37% increase over September billings of $304,621. The Company increased gross product profit margins by 3% to 77% during the period, compared to 74% in September. Total new patient shipments for October numbered 1,561, an increase of 19% over September, and end the month with an additional 2,612 patients approved and pending shipment for regulatory processing. MEDirect Latino expects to monetize its approved and pending patient orders in November, which is typical to the industry model. The Company's closing ratio during September was 82% of the total qualified response rate from its national and regional media campaign.
Ms. Debra L. Towsley, President of MEDirect Latino reports, "The Company achieved record results this month even though Hurricane Wilma severely impacted the South Florida community. Our results are wonderful when you consider Wilma resulted in the loss of 30% of MEDirect Latino's operational schedule for the month. In achieving these record results, the Company acknowledges the efforts or our senior team and employees, who continued to satisfy our customer's needs during very difficult times. In addition, the Company was able to mitigate its exposure to catastrophic events, due to the modular construction of our internal protocols. Both our national media campaign on Telemundo Television Network and in Puerto Rico ran as scheduled which resulted in a large backlog of potential new customers, which the Company will book and monetize in November."
"Further," stated Mr. Raymond Talarico, Co-Chairman and CEO, "While other South Florida businesses were immediately affected by a major storm such as Hurricane Wilma, such as the hotel, travel, and retail operations, we at MEDirect Latino are fortunate in the fact that the Company was designed as a cutting edge direct-to consumer national marketing and customer service company. Our infrastructure was designed to outsource the initial customer response and make appointments for a customer care representative to call the customer back. Wonderfully, our protocols which we operate by, have not been impacted by the storm, as our customer, the elderly Hispanic, by nature, accepts healthcare-by-appointment, which is the paradigm we operate by. Our intake center made appointments for our customer care representatives to contact them at the next available appointment time. This provided for the Company to 'bank' incoming customers to be closed at a later date. Therefore, unlike other businesses, our income opportunities were only deferred and not eliminated."
ANALYTICAL REPORTS
Additional Company information may be obtained by reviewing a detailed research report published by noted micro-cap analyst, Mr. William Ritger, President of The Research Works, Inc. covering MEDirect Latino. The report is now available for review at: http://www.stocksontheweb.com/mlto.pdf
Additional Company information may be obtained by reviewing a comprehensive analytical profile generated by small cap analyst, Mr. Gerald Kieft, President of Wall Street Resources, Inc. The 27-page report includes detailed information on the Company's business model, products, industry, valuation, management, and risks. The free report is available at: http://www.wallstreetresources.net/pdf/fc/MLTO2.pdf
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.
The MEDirect Latino Inc. logo is available at: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1873