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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare Group Inc. has faced a firestorm of controversy this year. And as investigators search for a motive in the slaying of Brian Thompson, CEO of its insurance arm, they aren’t counting anything out.
Between a software attack, protests, lawsuits, insider trading accusations and layoffs by one of its subsidiaries, Thompson’s killing adds a tragic end to a troubled year for the company.
In February, the technology company Change Healthcare — a UnitedHealth Group Inc. subsidiary — was breached by hackers, causing prescriptions to go unfilled and big backups at pharmacies. It ended up costing the company $872 million.
A federal lawsuit filed in May by the City of Hollywood Firefighter’s Pension Fund alleges months before learning of a U.S. Department of Justice’s 2022 antitrust investigation about its acquisition of Change Healthcare, Thompson “sold over $15 million of his personally held UnitedHealth shares.” The suit also alleged UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chairman Stephen Hemsley “sold over $102 million” of his shares. After news of the DOJ investigation went public that year, the stock price tanked, “erasing nearly $25 billion in shareholder value,” according to the filing.
In July, a protest at the company’s Minnetonka headquarters led to 11 arrests. Demonstrators accused the company’s insurance arm of a “systemic practice of refusing to approve care through prior authorization denials or pay for care through claim denials,” according to protest organizers People’s Action Institute. Police have not made any connection at this time between Thompson’s death and the July protest.
That same month, HealthPartners announced it was leaving UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network due to what they cited as the insurer’s high claim denial rate.
Optum, a subsidiary that provides several healthcare services, laid off workers in several other states in September.
And last month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued UnitedHealth Group Inc. filed a new antitrust suit against the company amid its $3.3 billion bid to acquire Amedisys Inc., one of the largest home health and hospice care providers in the U.S.
UnitedHealthcare Group Inc. is the nation’s fourth-largest public company, with its insurance arm covering more than 49 million people.
Thompson was fatally shot on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Wednesday morning by a masked assailant who fled on an e-bike into nearby Central Park. He is still at large.
CBS News confirmed on Thursday morning that shell casings collected at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them.
Hours later, the New York City Police Department released photos of a person they want to question in connection to the killing, who had stayed at a hostel just blocks from Central Park’s northwest corner.
Investigators hope facial recognition technology and a DNA analysis of a coffee cup discarded at a nearby Starbucks minutes before the shooting can help pinpoint the killer.
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