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Typhoon “Ondoy” (tropical storm Ketsana) hit Metro Manila last September 26, 2009 causing unprecedented flooding in 80% of the metropolis.
Entire towns were submerged in floods and in some areas, cars and trucks were swept by the waters like inflatable toys. As of Monday, Sept 28, 2009, 95 were confirmed dead, 280,000 displaced, 30 missing. Many were still stranded in flooded areas with thousands still perched on rooftops and second levels of their houses. Traffic remained paralyzed in many areas.
- The amount of rain brought by Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans is 2005 was 250mm in 24 hours
- The previous highest daily amount of rain in recorded Philippine history was 334mm in 24 hours.
- The amount of rain that fell September 26 in Quezon City from 8am to 2pm was 341mm in SIX hours only!
- The average maximum rainfall in Manila during the year is 432mm for the entire month of August.
- The amount of rain that fell September 26 in Quezon City was 455mm in 24 hours
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ePLDT's BPO subsidiary SPI acquires Laguna Medical Systems, Inc. (LMS) SPi Expands Healthcare Platform by Adding Medical Coding Consulting Services to Its Portfolio.
WASHINGTON, DC. Sept 02, 2009. SPi, a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) company, today announced that it has acquired Laguna Medical Systems, Inc. (LMS) for an aggregate purchase price of US $8.25 million.
LMS has 50+ regionally-based consultants who assist more than 200 hospitals to achieve coding and billing compliance and to optimize entitled reimbursements for patient services. The 22-year-old company also offers Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) defense and recovery services to help healthcare providers manage and defend RAC audits.
Peter Maquera, President and CEO of SPi, said, "As a result of the significant focus on healthcare reform in the US, we have been actively tracking companies in the coding compliance space with the goal of finding one to acquire whose corporate culture and values match our own. LMS fits the bill. Their capabilities nicely complement our existing medical transcription, billing and revenue cycle management services and provide an excellent, new entry point for us into this rapidly growing $25 billion industry."
Maquera went on to say, "The inclusion of LMS's service offerings in our Healthcare portfolio allows us to strengthen our relationships with the more than 400 hospitals, multi-specialty clinics and physician practices that we currently serve, and it increases our Healthcare-specific employee base to more than 2,000 worldwide."
The US healthcare industry accounts for 16% of US GDP and is the largest segment in the US economy. With the US government now requiring healthcare providers to achieve a 95% or greater accuracy rate on medical coding, inexperienced healthcare providers with limited resources are expected to struggle to meet this requirement, enhancing growth opportunities for well-funded and managed service providers in the coding compliance consulting market. Add to this that the US government's RAC program is soon to expand from just hospitals to physicians in all states and the rationale for entering this coding marketplace becomes even stronger.
"SPi's acquisition of LMS is an excellent example of how we are executing on our strategic plan to accelerate growth and strengthen our position in the BPO arena," stated Ray C. Espinosa, President and CEO of ePLDT.
Espinosa went on to say, "Recognizing the rapid and continued growth in the healthcare industry, we are committed to expanding our platform in this area and are delighted to be adding another annuity-based business to our overall BPO portfolio."
Mike Beninato, President and CEO of SPi's wholly-owned medical billing and revenue cycle management company, Springfield Service Corporation (SSC), said, "SSC's management team is equally pleased with the acquisition of LMS and looks forward to merging its service offerings with our own." He added, "As it is becoming increasingly important for healthcare providers to significantly improve their efficiency while simultaneously lowering their costs, LMS's coding, audit and compliance consulting services, along with the rest of SPi's offerings, provide a critical set of capabilities for organizations navigating their way through today's ever-changing healthcare landscape. We look forward to working with LMS to integrate its offerings with ours and to achieve continued growth and profitability together in the years ahead."
Source ePLDT Press Release
Manila. Sept 3, 2009. Treasure Steelworks, a subsidiary of TKC Steel Corporation, has commissioned its new Eccentric Bottom Tapping Electric Arc Furnace (EBT-EAF) as part of its capacity and capability enhancement projects.
Full commercial operation of the new facility is expected to start as soon as the series of tests for direct charging of beneficiated iron core are completed.
As part of the strategic plan of TKC Steel, it is testing the use of locally sourced iron ora processed from its beneficiating facility as raw material for its furnaces. Scrap metal is fast becoming scarce and costly. But the country has more than enough supply of iron ore to meet the TKC subsidiary's total present and future requirements.
Initial test results from the use of beneficiated local iron ore are said to be encouraging. They indicated substantial cost savings and improved yields of melted steel that the company is confident that it will be able to arrive at the optimum mixture of materials and additives that will reduce its dependence on scrap.
The capacity of the new furnace is 50MT per heat. This increases Treasure Steelworks' annual production output of billets by about 15%. The new facility is also equipped with the latest supersonic oxygen injector that would further improve production output.
Together with the newly commissioned ladle furnace and the newly installed iron ore beneficiating facility, the billet manufacturing shop of Treasure Steel will be the most modern facility in the Philippines, equal to similar modern plants in the ASEAN region.
Source: TKC Steel Press Release
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