Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest health insurance provider and one of the world’s largest by revenue, has been assassinated in broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan.
Thompson was shot Thursday, Dec. 5, at around 6:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time outside the Hilton Midtown on Sixth Avenue where he was staying just hours before the company’s annual investor conference. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is currently investigating the deadly shooting, but initial reports have described Thompson’s shooting as a targeted attack by a gunman who was lying in wait for him. The gunman is still at large and the department is still investigating his possible motive.
“This doesn’t appear to be a random act of violence,” said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack.”
The suspect was caught committing the shooting on CCTV, but neither the gunman’s face nor other identifying features were observed. The suspect, who shot Thompson in the back several times, wore a mask over a dark hooded jacket and carried a gray backpack..
NYPD was able to track the suspect through CCTV footage from other locations. The gunman fled from the scene on foot before mounting an electric bike and riding it into Central Park, with his trail disappearing there.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, the gunman arrived outside the Hilton about five minutes before Thompson left, ignoring other people walking by. The gunman’s pistol appeared to be fitted with a suppressor or silencer, but this has yet to be confirmed, as the use of a silencer could not be verified from CCTV alone.
Thompson, 50, has been with the UnitedHealth Group since 2004 and became CEO of UnitedHealthcare in 2021.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest private health insurance provider in the U.S., covering some 52 million people. Its parent company, the UnitedHealth Group, employs more than 400,000 people around the world and ranks eighth on the Fortune 500.
Thompson was supposed to attend UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference, which was due to begin around an hour after his shooting. The company was supposed to announce that it was predicting revenues of between $450 to $455 billion in 2025.
While Thompson’s yearly salary was $1 million, his total earnings from compensation, stock awards and other revenue sources bring his total annual earnings to $10.2 million. His residence in Maple Grove, Minnesota – about 15 miles from UnitedHealth Group’s headquarters in Minnetonka – is estimated to be worth over $1.5 million.
Thompson’s widow thinks his shooting may be related to insurance claim denial
Thompson leaves behind his wife, Paulette, 51, and their two children. Paulette notes that Thompson had received some threats of violence before the shooting, but did not provide any details due to the ongoing investigation.
“Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?” she said during an interview, alluding to denial of insurance claim as a possible motive for the shooter. “I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
It should be noted that UnitedHealthcare is notorious for having the highest claim denial rate of any health insurance company in the U.S. at 32 percent – five percent higher than the 27 percent of the second-highest claim denier Medica, and double the industry average of 16 percent.
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations also found that UnitedHealthcare, alongside Humana and CVS – the three largest providers of Medicare Advantage insurance – boosted their profits by fraudulently denying seniors stays in post-acute care facilities while they recovered from illnesses and injuries. (Related: Health insurance companies overcharged Medicare by over $50 BILLION for fake illnesses.)
UnitedHealthcare specifically saw its prior authorization denial rate for post-acute care surge from 10.9 percent in 2020 to 22.7 percent in 2022. The subcommittee noted that the unnecessary denials forced seniors “to make difficult choices about their health and finances in the vulnerable days after exiting a hospital.”
UnitedHealthcare’s high denial rate is so controversial that it has even led to public protests, including one on July 16 organized by former New Hampshire State Rep. Jennifer Coffey (R-Andover), who had exhausted all of her finances after UnitedHealthcare refused to continue approving her claims to pay for cancer care. The protest led to the arrest of 11 people.
Watch this short clip reporting on Brian Thompson’s fatal shooting in New York City.