Major health insurers are deleting images of their top leadership from corporate websites or removing executive pages entirely following the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this week. Thompson, 50, was shot multiple times in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday in what appeared to be a targeted attack.
But perhaps even more shocking to many of fellow CEOs within the healthcare industry has been the vocally supportive reaction from huge swaths of the public, endorsing the shooting and commending the still-at-large shooter. Thompson was one of many multi-millionaires in the field who had supplemented his own wealth over the years while gradually increasing the denial rates of the company, literally costing the lives of thousands upon thousands of people who were in desperate need of medical care in the process.
The Sentiment Surrounding the Shooting
While insurers do not publicly disclose their denial rates, UnitedHealthcare (among the largest private insurers in the country) has come under extreme scrutiny in the past decade for its high rates of claims denial. A Senate subcommittee investigation earlier this fall found UnitedHealthcare’s denial rate for post-acute services in privatized Medicare Advantage plans increased from 8.7% in 2019 to 22.7% in 2022. Over the same time period, UnitedHealthcare’s skilled nursing home denial rate increased ninefold.
Considering this high rate of denial, clues left by the gunman which reveal his motivations in part or in whole, and the sheer disdain aimed at the uber-wealthy as millionaires and/or billionaires such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk move into the White House, it isn’t difficult to see where Thompson’s shooting came from and how it could be the first of more to come.
As a result, these events have spurred healthcare companies to increase security around their executives, according to reports. Such measures appear to be extending online, as major insurers scrub identifying details of top personnel from their sites. UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth, quickly removed its executive leadership page after Thompson’s death. Some of its peers have since followed suit: Elevance’s senior leadership page is no longer online.
Similarly, executive pages for a number of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, including in North Carolina and Massachusetts, have also been deleted, while the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blues plans, removed a link to its executive bios from its “About Us” page.
Changing Course and Pulling Info
While CVS confirmed that executive images had been removed, a spokesperson declined to comment as to why. Elevance and Centene did not respond to a request for comment. But given the fact that these pages had been up for years prior to Thompson’s shooting and were unceremoniously yanked in the immediate aftermath, the purpose seems pretty obvious.
Elsewhere, Centene cited Thompson’s death in moving its investor day next week, which was originally scheduled to be an in-person conference in New York City, to a virtual-only event. The press release from Thursday says, “In the wake of the tragic loss of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, Centene’s Investor Day will now be hosted virtually,”
Thompson’s widow, Paulette, told NBC News that her husband had received threats related to a lack of coverage. Words like “deny” and “depose” were found on round and shell casings at the scene, according to multiple outlets, which could be related to a phrase used to critique health insurers for avoiding covering medical care.
“The people in our industry are mission-driven professionals working to make coverage and care as affordable as possible and to help people navigate the complex medical system,” Michael Tuffin, the president, and CEO of powerful health insurance lobby AHIP, wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday. “We condemn any suggestion that threats against our colleagues—or anyone else in our country—are ever acceptable.”
In an updated statement published Thursday night, UnitedHealth said its current priorities are supporting Thompson’s family, assisting law enforcement in the investigation, and ensuring the safety of its employees.
“While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the statement reads. “So many patients, consumers, health care professionals, associations, government officials, and other caring people have taken time out of their day to reach out. We are thankful, even as we grieve.”
