Healthcare, insurance giants scrub leadership from web after CEO killing

Health care giant UPMC makes no secret of who its top executives are, but the organization also isn't advertising it. At least, not for now.

Western Pennsylvania's largest employer, like some other large corporations, is giving its leadership a lower online profile.

CEO Leslie Davis' photo and biography have been scrubbed from the health care and insurance company's website, along with those of other top executives, as some industry leaders seek obscurity after the recent brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.

They might have good reason for concern.

Bullet casings left behind after the shooting, police said, read "delay," "deny," and "depose" -- a morbid nod to what some insurance industry critics have said is a corporate tactic for handling claims. And certain corners of the internet have hailed suspected shooter Luigi Mangione, who was apprehended in Altoona on Dec. 9, as a hero -- or at least a morally ambiguous figure -- amid longstanding patient frustrations with UnitedHealthcare.

In the days after Thompson was gunned down, UnitedHealthcare, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, UPMC and other major market players have retrenched online, fearing copycat attacks.

UPMC, like other health insurance companies, declined to comment on its security practices.

But not every company has pulled back the web profiles of its top brass.

Highmark Health, which runs a health insurance empire and health care provider Allegheny Health Network, is keeping photos and detailed biographies of high-level executives online. Spokesperson Aaron Billger confirmed there have been no efforts to remove leaders' information from the web and said Highmark has a "robust security" program in place across its networks.

"We are closely monitoring the circumstances surrounding the tragic killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO," he added.

Independence Health System spokesperson Thomas Chakurda declined to comment, stating "it would be imprudent for us to publicly discuss or detail any security protocols we have in place."

But not everyone agrees that shrinking from public view is the way to go for corporate executives, even in the health insurance industry.

Jeff Krakoff, president of Dormont-based public relations firm Krakoff Communications, said now is not the time for executives to retreat from public view.

"Do people not go anywhere, not do anything? Do you scrub all the information from websites? From a simple Google search you can find all of that information anyway. I think it's important to show that they're people," Krakoff said, referring to corporate executives.

Media interviews and podcasts, for example, are low-risk ways to stay in the public eye, he said.

And making corporate leadership more anonymous online might reinforce negative perceptions, in his view.

"I think big corporate America, in general, has an image problem," he said. "If there are misperceptions or mistruths out there, now would be a great time to proactively talk about those."