Health insurers enhance security following UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting

Jolted by the New York shooting that targeted a healthcare executive, health insurance companies are employing new and rigid security procedures. Companies have removed information about their executives from websites, canceled public meetings in favor of online sessions, and are briefing employees on new safety methods and tactics when traveling or appearing in public.

What they aren’t doing is talking about it. None of the top health insurers contacted for this story responded to questions about security and fears rising in the wake of the shooting. Nor would they comment on the eruption of outrage, even celebration or the killing, aimed at health insurers following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.

Police arrested a 26-year-old Masters honor student, Luigi Mangione, and charged him with murder and various firearms offenses on Tuesday, five days after surveillance videos captured what appeared to be him gunning down the executive outside a Manhattan hotel.

When caught, police say they found a handwritten manifesto raging against the “delay, deny, and depose” tactics to avoid claims the alleged killer said insurers unfairly use against their own customers. Those words were etched into bullet casings left at the scene of the crime, police said.

Lifting a veil off latent hostility

The shooting has lifted a veil off the latent hostility many have toward healthcare providers and insurers.

Some health insurance companies have undertaken efforts to make their executive staff less visible. UnitedHealthcare, CVS, owner of Aetna, and Elevavance Health, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, along with Medica, removed web pages highlighting pictures and bios of their senior leadership. Some insurers are hiring armed security personnel for executives as they travel and commute to work from their homes. Others have increased social media monitoring for potential threats.

Centene Corp., a top healthcare company based in St. Louis, said its Investor Day would be hosted virtually on Thursday instead of the planned public meeting.

Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm, said it would temporarily close its six offices for security reasons and have its employees work from home.

Security: 'An abundance of caution'

“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.

But the anger toward insurers that erupted in the wake of the shooting is more often directed at the large for-profit insurers, which pay enormous salaries to their top executives and have large denial rates, which some consider excessive.

UnitedHealthcare, for example, has a claims denial rate of 32%, according to available in-network claim data for plans sold on the marketplace and compiled by ValuePenguin. Data show Medica with a 27% denial rate; Anthem 23%, Aetna 20%, and Cigna 18%.

By comparison, giant health care provider Kaiser Permanente denies only 7% of medical bills, according to the data.

The most common reasons for claims denials were no prior authorization, physicians not covered by the plan, coding issues, and claims made too late.

But a bigger question stemming from the murder was whether the highly publicized incident would bring meaningful change to health insurer polices and practices. Some theorized that Thompson’s killing could usher in changes the way the assassination of President James Garfield led to major civil service reforms.

But moving the giant and embedded health care industry would be a much bigger slog, advocates say. Already UnitedHealthcare was under fire by the Department of Justice, which sued the company over its $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare, a health insurance claims processing center and clearinghouse. The DOJ sought to block the acquisition on antitrust grounds, but the company prevailed, and the Change deal was completed.

It is still facing class action lawsuits relating to the acquisition and its alleged “monopolistic powers.”

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Doug Bailey is a journalist and freelance writer who lives outside of Boston. He can be reached at [email protected].