Major health insurers have deleted images of their leadership from corporate websites or removing executive pages entirely following the ‘brazen, targeted’ killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this week. Police have launched a manhunt for suspect who gunned down a healthcare chief executive in New York.
UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back on Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Police say Thompson was targeted in a pre-planned killing, for which they do not yet have a motive.Many of Thompson’s peers expressed grief over the fatal shooting, the killing also set off a morbidly gleeful celebration on social media. Posters on sites like X and Reddit applauded and joked about the crime to vent frustration and anger with health insurers
The shooting and subsequent reaction has spurred healthcare companies to increase security around their executives, according to multiple reports. Following the murder of its CEO on Wednesday morning, United Healthcare removed a page from its website listing the rest of its executive leadership.Health insurers are removing details after Brian Thompson’s deathAccording to a report in Healthcaredive, 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.
The report suggests that executive pages for a number of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, including in North Carolina and Massachusetts, have also been deleted. Moreover, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blues plans, removed a link to its executive bios from its “About Us” page.
Blues-branded plans operated by Anthem were embroiled in the social media firestorm stoked by Thompson’s death this week, as commenters slammed an upcoming coverage policy to curtail anesthesia coverage for certain surgeries. Some posts threatened Blues executives unrelated to the change.Elevance, Anthem’s parent company, canceled the policy rollout on Thursday, citing “significant widespread misinformation”, according to reports. Centene and CVS, which owns Aetna, have left executive biographies intact but removed headshots of their officers.
How has public reacted to killing of Brian ThompsonThe fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is surfacing the public’s deep frustration with the health insurance industry. It has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness. Americans are sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants.
In particular, the words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry.For many in America, Thompson’s death and the message left at the scene have created an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Conversations at dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and on social media have pivoted to the topic, as police efforts to find the gunman keep the case in the news.
