After Killing of CEO, Other Insurers Take Precautions

Manhunt continues, and experts doubt it was a professional hit man
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 6, 2024 1:40 PM CST
Insurers Take Precautions as Manhunt Continues
In this 2014 photo, the building for Medica headquarters is pictured in Minnetonka, Minnesota.   (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

As the manhunt for a gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday in Manhattan stretches into a third day, other health insurers are taking their own precautions. The AP reports that Medica, a health care firm also based in Minnesota, like UnitedHealthcare, is shuttering its half-dozen locations for the time being—not only in the North Star State, but also in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and North Dakota. A Medica rep says the company's 3,000 or so staffers based at those locations will work from home for now.

"We considered the workplace safety of our employees in making that decision," a company spokesman told the Star Tribune on Thursday. "The step was taken out of an abundance of caution." The newspaper notes that although police haven't yet confirmed a motive for Thompson's shooting, the gunman "appears to have intentionally targeted the UnitedHealthcare chief executive." 404 Media reports that UnitedHealthcare and Medica have also apparently scrubbed their websites of most info about the companies' top execs, as have insurers Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, CareSource, and Elevance Health.

Reuters notes that CVS Health, which runs the Aetna insurance firm, similarly yanked photos of its lead executives on Thursday. "I think there's going to be a lot of executives that are going to say, 'Hey, you know, this could happen to me, and we should really consider our security protocol going forward,'" says Glen Kucera of security firm Allied Universal. Reuters notes that "consumer frustration with health insurance in the US has been high for years," and that frustration boiled over this week via social media posts mocking and railing against Thompson and the health insurance industry in general after his death.

story continues below

  • The manhunt: Investigators continue to pore over physical evidence and digital clues, per the New York Times. They know the unidentified man spotted in photographs arrived in New York City by bus about 10 days before the shooting. The bus set out from Atlanta, but it was not clear where he boarded. And though the shooter appeared to be proficient with weaponry, experts doubt he was a hired professional, per the Times. "That seems unlikely," says David Shapiro, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former FBI special agent tells the newspaper. "It would be very hard to get somebody to do something like this. It's very high risk."
(More Brian Thompson stories.)

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