For a third day, police searched for the suspect in what they are calling a “brazen, targeted,” and “premeditated” attack on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down early Wednesday morning outside his midtown Manhattan hotel.
While there is no known motive yet, police are investigating whether anger at UnitedHealth and the insurance industry could be at play. Due to the personal nature of the attack on Thompson, a number of healthcare insurance companies are removing the names, information, and photos of their leadership from their websites, 404 Media reported.
Those companies include: UnitedHealth Group, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, and Aetna.
Pharmacy chain CVS has also removed information about its leadership from its website.
UnitedHealthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group removed photos of its top executives from its website hours after the shooting, and later removed their names and biographies, according to the Associated Press.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reportedly redirected its leadership page to a general “about us” page on its website after walking back a policy that would charge patients for anesthesia during procedures that went longer than estimated.
Humana also removed its CEO page and information about its board of directors, while Aetna removed its leadership page. CVS pulled photos of its executives (Aetna has partnered with CVS Health to offer access to a nationwide network of primary care doctors, specialists, hospitals, and discounts in store). Park Nicollet Health Service also removed a photo and information about Thompson’s wife, Paulette.
The AP also reported Medica, a nonprofit healthcare firm, temporarily closed its Minnesota offices for security reasons on Friday “out of an abundance of caution,” while nonprofit health insurance organization Caresource took down individual executive leadership pages.
At the same time, many companies are beefing up their security. (Thompson reportedly did not have a security detail when he was shot.)
“Chief security officers around the globe are looking at their executive security programs, either on their own, or by CEOs and their boards . . . making sure that they have the appropriate resources . . . to identify potential situations like this,” Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management, told ABC News. He added that security officers at dozens of Fortune 500 companies held a video call to discuss boosting protection for executives after the shooting.
But critics say executives are missing the point. The incident has shed a spotlight on many Americans’ distrust and frustration with healthcare insurers and the nation’s increasingly expensive healthcare system.
UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest health insurers in the U.S., covering more than 50 million people, has been heavily criticized for denying patients’ claims, delaying reimbursements, and defending their refusal to cover medical treatments and procedures deemed necessary by doctors and hospitals, particularly for the elderly. In the last few days, people have used social media to vent their anger over these and other business practices, aiming it at UnitedHealth, Thompson, and the system at large.
Last year, UnitedHealth Group reported $371.6 billion in revenue and was slapped with an antitrust lawsuit to block a $3.3 billion acquisition of a rival home health and hospice service, according to National Public Radio.