Major Health Insurance Companies Scrub Leadership Pages Following Murder of CEO
Several leading health insurance companies have quietly removed their executive leadership pages from public view on their websites in the wake of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder.
Thompson was fatally shot early Wednesday outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, just an hour before an investor conference. Surveillance footage captured the chilling incident, showing the gunman’s attack. The bullets were reportedly engraved with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” which investigators believe are reference to a book about insurance companies refusing to pay for claims.
In response, per a new report by 404 Media, United Healthcare swiftly took down its leadership page, which previously featured profiles of Thompson and other executives. Visitors to the page are now redirected to the company’s homepage.
Archived versions show the page was still accessible Wednesday morning, but it has since disappeared from Google search results and site navigation.
The trend of scrubbing these pages from company websites to protect business leaders extended beyond United Healthcare, even as the manhunt for Thompson’s killer continues.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield also removed its leadership directory, redirecting visitors to a generic “about us” page. This comes just as the insurer faced public backlash over a now-retracted policy change that would have charged patients for anesthesia during prolonged procedures. Anthem’s missing page previously listed 25 top executives.
Other insurers, including nonprofit organizations Caresource and Medica, followed suit. Caresource’s executive bios, which featured the company president and CEO among others, now return error messages.
Medica’s leadership and foundation staff pages have similarly vanished, with users met by a blunt message: “Oops. That page doesn’t exist.” Elevance Health replaced its leadership page with a brief note stating, “Sorry, that page is no longer here.”
According to 404 Media, not all insurers have scrubbed their sites. Kaiser Permanente, Humana, and Aetna continue to keep their executive directories accessible.
