dragon.game Brian Thompson Was a Veteran Executive at UnitedHealthcare
Follow the latest updates on the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.dragon.game
Brian Thompson spent more than 20 years climbing through the ranks at UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest health insurers and a main division of the conglomerate UnitedHealth Group, and there were no signs that his ascent was slowing.
He had been chief executive of the insurance division since 2021, overseeing a period of substantial profits. The division reported $281 billion in revenues last year, providing coverage to millions of Americans through the health plans it sold to individuals, employers and people under government programs like Medicare. The division employed roughly 140,000 people.
Mr. Thompson’s killing on Wednesday outside a midtown Manhattan hotel as he was walking toward the UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor day sent shock waves through the nation’s vast health care sector. The fatal shooting elicited an outpouring of sympathy from rival insurers, executives, health care providers and others.
During Mr. Thompson’s tenure as chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the company’s profits rose, with earnings from operations topping $16 billion in 2023 from $12 billion in 2021. Mr. Thompson received a total compensation package last year of $10.2 million, a combination of $1 million in base pay and cash and stock grants.
He oversaw significant growth in one of the company’s key businesses, the sale of private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage, a program mainly for those 65 and older that receives federal funds and now covers roughly half of the 61 million people signing up.
“He sure as heck had a lot of role in the proliferation of Medicare Advantage,” said Matt Burns, a former United executive who spent several years working for Mr. Thompson, whom colleagues knew as BT.
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