Brian Thompson led one of many greatest well being insurers within the U.S. however was unknown to hundreds of thousands of individuals his selections affected.
Then Wednesday’s focused deadly capturing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the manager and his enterprise into the nationwide highlight.
Thompson, who was 50, had labored on the big UnitedHealth Group Inc for 20 years and run the insurance coverage arm since 2021 after working its Medicare and retirement enterprise.
As CEO, Thompson led a agency that gives well being protection to greater than 49 million People — greater than the inhabitants of Spain. United is the most important supplier of Medicare Benefit plans, the privately run variations of the U.S. authorities’s Medicare program for folks age 65 and older. The corporate additionally sells particular person insurance coverage and administers health-insurance protection for 1000’s of employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid applications.
The enterprise run by Thompson introduced in $281 billion in income final yr, making it the most important subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay bundle, together with wage, bonus and inventory choices awards, made him one of many firm’s highest-paid executives.
The College of Iowa graduate started his profession as a licensed public accountant at PwC and had little title recognition past the well being care business. Even to buyers who personal its inventory, the mum or dad firm’s face belonged to CEO Andrew Witty, a knighted British triathlete who has testified earlier than Congress.
When Thompson did sometimes draw consideration, it was due to his position in shaping the way in which People get well being care.
At an investor assembly final yr, he outlined his firm’s shift to “value-based care,” paying docs and different caregivers to maintain sufferers wholesome relatively than specializing in treating them as soon as sick.
“Health care should be easier for people,” Thompson mentioned on the time. “We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the … family doesn’t have to make the decisions on their own.”
Thompson additionally drew consideration in 2021 when the insurer, like its opponents, was broadly criticized for a plan to start out denying cost for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms.
“Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,” the chief govt of the American Hospital Affiliation wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. “Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.”
UnitedHealthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change.
Thompson, who lived in a Minneapolis suburb and was the married father of two sons in highschool, was set to talk at an investor assembly in a midtown New York lodge. He was on his personal and about to enter the constructing when he was shot within the again by a masked assailant who fled on foot earlier than pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a number of blocks away, the New York Police Division mentioned.
Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny mentioned investigators have been Thompson’s social media accounts and interviewing workers and relations.
“Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny mentioned. “He did not have a security detail.”
AP reporters Michael R. Sisak and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Indianapolis.
