Becker's Hospital Review

30 CIO / HEALTH IT SOC Telemed, public investment firm merge to form $720M company: 7 details By Laura Dyrda S OC Telemed agreed to merge with Healthcare Merger Corp., a public in- vestment firm that raised $250 million in an IPO last December, on July 29. Here are seven things to know about the proposed transaction: 1. e combined company will operate as SOC Telemed and be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market with the initial value of around $720 million. 2. SOC Telemed focuses on virtual care solu- tions primarily used for acute care inside hos- pitals. e company serves 847 facilities in- cluding 543 acute care hospitals in 47 states. Nineteen of the largest 25 health systems in the U.S. use its technology. 3. When the transaction is complete, inter- im CEO of SOC Telemed Paul Ricci will step down and John Kalix, president of the com- pany, will become CEO. CEO and director of HCMC Steve Shulman will become chairman of the SOC Telemed board. 4. e majority equity holder of SOC, Warburg Pincus, will remain the larg- est shareholder of the combined entity. Institutional investors have a private invest- ment of $165 in common stock of the com- bined company that will close with the busi- ness combination; HCMC also has around $250 million in a trust account. 5. Current SOC shareholders will own 40 per- cent of the combined company and HCMC shareholders will own 32 percent. e rest of the company will be held by PIPE investors and HCMC will own 7 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of SOC common stock aer closing. 6. e combination will likely close in the fourth quarter of 2020. 7. Credit Suisse was a financial advisor to SOC and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe were legal counsel. MST Health partners was fi- nancial advisor to HCMC and Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole were legal counsel. n Trump signs executive order to cement rural telehealth services: 3 things to know By Jackie Drees O n Aug. 3 President Donald Trump signed an exec- utive order to expand access to telehealth services in rural communities and make certain services permanent once the COVID-19 public emergency ends. Three things to know: 1. To increase telehealth services and accessibility in rural hospitals, the order requires HHS to implement a new pay- ment model tailored to the needs of rural communities, according to a news release. 2. President Trump's order also calls for the federal gov- ernment to deploy a joint initiative within 30 days focused on improving healthcare communication infrastructure in rural areas. 3. The order will also extend availability of certain tele- health services after the pandemic ends, building upon CMS' previous expansions allowing physicians to provide telehealth services across state lines and boosting reim- bursement rates. n Hacker infects Houston billing company systems with malware, exposes info of 274,837 patients Jackie Drees H ouston-based Benefit Recovery Specialists, which provides billing and collection services to health- care providers and payers, notified 274,837 pa- tients and health plan members of a malware attack that compromised their protected health information. BRSI discovered the cyberattack on April 30 and launched an investigation, which found that an unauthorized user accessed BRSI's systems using employee credentials and deployed malware. The hacker had access to certain BRSI customer files containing personal information between April 20-30. Personal information affected by the malware attack in- cludes names, dates of birth, policy identification num- bers, provider names and, for a small number of individu- als, Social Security numbers. BRSI began notifying affected individuals in early June and reported the incident on June 26 to HHS. n

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