New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with murder in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, hours after he was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
A Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company raised its drug prices, and then board members and executives received phone calls threatening violence. A health care company's board meeting was disrupted after board members were targeted in "swatting" attacks that wrongly sent law enforcement officers to their homes. These incidents happened before the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare's chief executive, in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. The police had not offered a motive for the shooting as of Thursday night, or said it was related to Mr. Thompson's work in the insurance industry. The killing, however, stunned business leaders, some of whom were already concerned about safety. Over the last five years, there has been a sharp rise in targeted attacks, digital and offline, of executives and their families.
Over 500 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study, leaving most rural hospitals and more than a third of urban hospitals without obstetric care.
The killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of the insurance division of UnitedHealth Group, provided a window into the vitriol that prominent healthcare leaders have been facing. Workers across healthcare face safety risks. People employed in the industry are about five times more likely than people in other private industries to experience workplace violence.
Tower Health COO and President Michael Stern has been promoted to CEO, effective February 24, 2025. Stern will oversee the next stage of Tower Health's progress, including implementing our three-year strategic plan and new Tower Experience initiative. Current CEO P. Sue Perrotty will return to the Tower Health Board of Directors. Her final day as Tower Health CEO will be February 23, 2025 – a full-circle moment as the date will mark the fourth anniversary of her tenure.
A manhunt for the killer is underway and tributes to Thompson are circulating online.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning, sparking a search for his killer and an outpouring of condolences.
New York police say the suspect shot Thompson in the chest in a "brazen, targeted attack" at 6:46 a.m. ET outside of the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel — moments before the annual investor conference for UnitedHealthcare's parent company was set to begin.
Thompson, 50, lived in Minnesota but was visiting New York City for the conference, which has since been canceled. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
Within hours, a manhunt was underway for the gunman, and tributes to Thompson were circulating online.
"Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him," UnitedHealth Group said in a statement, adding that it is working closely with the NYPD. "Our hearts go out to Brian's family and all who were close to him."
He was CEO since 2021
UnitedHealthcare is the health benefits business within UnitedHealth Group, the country's largest private health insurer.
The Minnesota-based company is ranked 4th on the Fortune 500 and employs some 440,000 people worldwide. UnitedHealth Group is so dominant, in fact, that the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil antitrust suit just last month to try to block its proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of rival home health care and hospice agencies.
Thompson was named the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in April 2021.
"Brian's experience, relationships and values make him especially well-suited to help UnitedHealthcare improve how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments and our other partners, leading to continued and sustained long-term growth," Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, said in a release at the time.
Thompson previously held a variety of executive positions — most recently as the CEO of UnitedHealthcare's government programs businesses, including Medicare — since joining UnitedHealth Group in 2004, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before that, he had spent more than half a decade working as a CPA at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC.
Thompson graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a degree in business administration and accounting, according to LinkedIn.
