- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
Summary
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in a premeditated attack outside the New York Hilton Midtown before speaking at an investor conference.
The gunman, still at large, fired multiple times, leaving shell casings marked with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive. His wife confirmed prior threats against him.
Analysts speculate a possible vendetta tied to his company. The case raises questions about executive security, as Thompson lacked personal protection despite known risks.
Thankfully it doesn’t raise any questions about the place of billionaire CEOs of companies making life and death decisions for the general populace for the sake of their overflowing pocket book. Boy would that be awkward.
Weird. I don’t have any questions about that.
Just FYI - he was worth about $43 million. https://blackstarnews.com/brian-thompson-net-worth/
Sure, he was in the upswing of his career making $20m a year since 2021. Also being investigated for fraud/insider trading for selling $15m of stocks before results of a federal antitrust investigation became public. Sounds swell.
Is this like the Boomer thing where we use one word that means one thing to describe something else?
I feel like sarcasm is pretty timeless.
No it’s more like when you say “frick” instead of “fuck.”
Just curious: do you know any life or death decision he personally made that wasn’t the result of hundreds of bean counters crafting policy over many years? I find it hard to believe the ceo rubber stamped any decision like that, or even that he was aware of the details of any individual case.
The CEO is ultimately responsible for the actions of the company. That’s literally their job. They set policy, direction and strategy, and if we’re to listen to what CEOs say they do,they also set the tone, attitude and energy of the company.
So unless the denials that resulted in death were done in opposition to corporate policy, the CEO is responsible for them.
Additionally, there was literally nothing stopping him from pushing a company policy of, as a thought, approving all claims involving minors, changing approval standards to only deny when the treatment was unequivocally unnecessary after a verbal consultation between the patients doctor and the insurance review doctor, and moving the balance of claim review to fraud investigation to recoup money after instead of denying upfront.
He’s only been there since 2021. These policies don’t show up overnight. How do you know he wasn’t working to change these policies?
Being in charge since 2021 means he got to decide at least some policies during the pandemic, which arguably could’ve caused even more harm if he wanted to deny a portion of claims solely to keep shareholders happy
First, because I’m not naive and know that CEOs don’t get large bonuses and stock grants for doing stuff like that, particularly not in the US health insurance industry.
Second, we know that since he started there they began programs like using AI in a fashion that had a preposterously high denial rate, and actively hurt elderly people.
this case, and others like it continued to happen during his tenure.
Finally, a company wouldn’t do a program like that without mentioning it, since it would clearly make them a more appealing insurer.
Even if he didn’t put the policies in place, he’s still responsible for the conduct of the company under his supervision, and there’s no indication he did anything other than act like what you would expect from an insurance company CEO. Maximizing profits by denying healthcare.
Decisions that led to his company having the worst denial rate nationwide and the decision to wholly adopt an AI system that is known to have a 90% error rate to achieve it. Overflowing profits and bonuses sank right in to his pockets for his business acumen, and the key thing you do to earn that CEO payday is sign off on everything and be culpable when the shit hits the fan.
that’s the thing about being the chief, the buck stops there.
You can’t put bullets in a “system”.
Preexisting bullets have somehow migrated thru his ass. Had he checked with his doctor before they would have caught the bullets. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do…except maybe monopoly! Or how about a game of checkers? Or tictactoe?
Yes the machine of human misery and death was already constructed before Mr Thompson got into the drivers seat. What’s you’re point? That he somehow didn’t know it was a death machine?
Strange to me that people are celebrating this guys death without knowing him or anything about how much his actions caused the issues with uhcs policy. He was handed the reign and therfore deserved death is the general tone here. Seems unjust and evil to me. I wouldn’t wish murder on anyone, worrying so many seem to disagree.
No one actually gives a shit about Brian Thomas personally. People see “United Healthcare CEO dead” and they say “good”. Maybe you’re not from the US but its not strange at all.
CEOs of these companies will say things along the lines of find a way to deny an extra X% of claims this year, our profits are down!
Edit: and I wouldn’t be surprised if they said something like or find a reason to deny that will get overturned if looked at further but maybe they won’t fight back hard enough.