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By Darwin G Amojelar, Reporter
SPi, the business process
outsourcing (BPO) unit of ePLDT, announced on Monday that it has
acquired a United States-based medical billing company to expand its
health-care portfolio.
Ray C. Espinosa, ePLDT president,
said SPi acquired Springfield Service Corp. for $44 million, the
largest acquisition to date for the Philippine company, which the
PLDT group acquired about a year ago.
“We are delighted to support
SPi’s expansion of its health-care platform and to be adding
another annuity-based business to our overall BPO portfolio,” he
added.
Springfield is the 10th largest
player in the medical billing and revenue cycle management market,
has 383 employees operating in five locations in the United States.
The US firm is estimated to
generate in excess of $30 million in revenues over the next twelve
months.
“We have been tracking
companies in the medical billing space for some time with the goal
of finding one to acquire whose corporate culture and values match
our own. [Springfield] fits the bill. Their annuity-based business
nicely complements our existing health-care platform and provides an
excellent entry point for us into this rapidly growing $25-billion
industry,” Ernest L. Cu, SPi president said.
The medical billing sector is
ideally suited for outsourcing due to the high volume of
transactions and the continuing rising costs of health care.
“The inclusion of
[Springfield’s] service offerings in our health-care portfolio
allows us to further strengthen our relationships with the more than
400 hospitals, multispecialty clinics and physician practices that
we serve,” Cu said.
In August 2006, SPi acquired
CyMed Inc. for $35 million. The company provides medical
transcription services for more than 400 health-care systems across
49 states in the US.
This year, SPi allotted P5
billion for acquisitions and its expansion plan.
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