Health insurance companies in US rethink risk after UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing

Healthcare insurance companies in the United States (US) are reassessing the risks for their top executives two days after UnitedHealthcare's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Thompson was shot dead on Wednesday (December 4).

Thompson was killed in an attack police called targeted as he was about to enter the Hilton hotel for the company's annual investor conference. The gunman, whose crime was recorded on video, is at large and the New York City Police Department said there was no known motive for the murder.

A report by the news agency Reuters on Friday (Dec 6) that insurance companies including UnitedHealthcare's rival firm CVS Health were removing details of top executives from their website.

The precautions

Reuters reported that CVS Health had removed photographs of its leadership team from its website.

Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit healthcare firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said on Friday that it was temporarily closing all six locations, the news agency Associated Press reported.

Medicahas offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. The company said that its employees would work from home (WFH) for the time being.

“Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a statement.

Company spokesperson Greg Bury, meanwhile, said that biographical information on Medica’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution.

UnitedHealthcare at first had just removed the photographs of its executives from its website, but later removed their names and biographies entirely.

Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. would be holding its upcoming Investor Day event virtually, in response to Thompson's killing.

A growing consumer frustration with health insurance in US

Consumer frustration with the American health insurance system has been high for many years, and this led to the creation ofObamacare- also known as the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

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Reuters reported that this year,insurance companies have struggled to hold down costs and have talked about their increased use of medical management, which includes making it more difficult to quickly receive coverage for services like surgery or medicines.

It is not yet known whether Brian Thompson's job at UnitedHealthcareplayed any role in his death. However, his killinghas brought attention to the increasing tension within the healthcare industry in the US.

(With inputs from agencies)