Slain CEO had worried about company's image
In early 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO
Average Americans didn't understand the massive insurance company's role in the nation's health system, Thompson argued in internal discussions and with fellow executives, including steps it had taken to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for lifesaving drugs, colleagues said. Instead, UnitedHealthcare and its parent,
"He understood that the public was frustrated with what they perceived the company's actions to be," according to one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private business conversations. "He was actively articulating a vision that helped better educate and help people better understand what the company is doing."
Anger directed at the company played a role on
As the murder investigation unfolded, the animosity that Thompson had warned of fueled backlash online. Mangione was hailed as a folk hero. Sympathy for Thompson and his surviving wife and children was "out of network," people wrote. Anti-CEO "Wanted" posters surfaced across
Horrified colleagues and friends say the online caricature bears no resemblance to the man they knew - a well-liked executive who had bootstrapped his way from his family's small farm outside
The two men whose lives allegedly collided on the dark Manhattan street on
"I try not to draw too many distinctions between work and life and maybe that's growing up on a farm in
He grew up the younger of two sons of a small farmer who worked at the community's grain elevator. He spent his summers fishing at the local lake and "walking beans" - a prairie farm term for weeding soybean fields, friends from
"He was definitely a perfectionist," Coy said. "It wasn't good enough to get an "A" on a test. He wanted to know why he missed a question, could that question have been worded differently. He pushed himself so very much."
Thompson continued to excel academically at the
As he rose quickly through the ranks of America's largest health-care corporation, Thompson found opportunities to shape the nation's health system - including at an urgent moment during the coronavirus pandemic, associates said.
"In the face of so many people saying this can't be done, honestly, Brian was the guy who made it happen," said
More than
One year after engineering the payments, Thompson would be elevated to the top job at UnitedHealthcare - the nation's largest health insurer, which provides coverage to about 50 million Americans. He would make "consumerism" his focus, colleagues have said, often invoking the need for the sprawling insurer to focus on individual patients.
"We know that millions of our members experience complex health issues each year, throughout the year," Thompson said in
Colleagues said that is the Thompson they remember, with several weeping in recent interviews as they discussed his work and life.
Patient advocacy groups have taken a dimmer view of his tenure, saying that UnitedHealthcare denied too many requests for care under Thompson's watch. He was among the highest-paid executives at
"We've been working for two years on the issue of care denials, and the research shows that almost every family in the
UnitedHealth has defended its track record in handling medical claims and said "misinformation" has been circulating about how often it denies care.
The company's insurance division pays about 90 percent of medical claims when they're submitted, according to a statement from the company late Friday. Of the remainder that undergo additional review, only 0.5 percent are "due to medical or clinical reasons," UnitedHealth said.
Allies of Thompson say that while they understand the scrutiny of UnitedHealth, the complexities of the health system should not be laid entirely at the company's feet. They said many of the price hikes that consumers blame on their insurance companies can be traced back to hospitals and doctors raising their own prices, which are then passed along to patients.
"Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made,"
Despite Thompson's high-powered role, he often took a back seat to Witty in public and did not seek out media attention, colleagues said. Inside the company, Thompson was known to use profanity and had a habit of constantly chewing gum - a casual, unassuming style that helped him to bond with employees throughout its ranks.
"His small-town
Pressures on UnitedHealthcare mounted in recent months. The company and others were found to have high rates of prior authorization denials for patients in Medicaid-managed care plans, according to a report last year by the inspector general's office at the
There were some signs of stress in his personal life. In 2017, he was arrested and convicted of driving while impaired, ultimately sentenced to probation. In 2018, he purchased a home not far from his wife and two boys and began living separately, neighbors said.
"Brian was a wonderful person with a big heart and who lived life to the fullest," his wife, Paulette, a physical therapist, had said in a statement to the
Throughout, he was a "really engaged dad" with his two sons, the colleague said, going to
"It was really important for him to know that they could look up and see their dad," he said.
Back in
"I can tell you when he was in this community, he was taught right from wrong," said
Thompson was remembered in a private ceremony this past week in
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