Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.
Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors.
The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.
As that lawsuit made its way through the courts, anger regarding the massive insurer’s predilection towards denying claims has only grown, and speculation about the assassin’s motives suggests that he may have been among those upset with UHC’s coverage.
Though we don’t yet know the identity of the person who shot Thompson nor his reasoning, reports claim that he wrote the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on the shell casing of the bullets used to shoot the CEO — a message that makes it sound a lot like the killer was aggrieved against the insurance industry’s aggressive denials of coverage to sick patients.
Beyond the shooter’s own motives, it’s clear from the shockingly celebratory reaction online to Thompson’s murder that anger about the American insurance and healthcare system has reached the point of literal bloodlust.
As The American Prospect so aptly put it, “only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO.”
And the alarming cruelty of the claims around the company’s AI algorithm — we asked the company whether it’s still using it, but received no immediate reply — perfectly illustrates why they’re so angry.
