In the aftermath of the tragic shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, health insurance companies are removing web pages that list their executives and boards of directors.
A day after Thompson was fatally gunned down outside a New York City hotel on the way to UnitedHealth Group’s investor day, company pages on the websites of major health insurers that previously listed their senior leadership teams redirected elsewhere. UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.
Executive and board of directors bios are common on most company websites, both public and private. Now it appears that major insurers including UnitedHealthcare, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and its parent company, Elevance Health, all took down those pages, likely as precautionary measures.
Elevance Health, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and UnitedHealthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
Archived versions of the web pages show that they were active on Wednesday. However, as of the publication of this article, those same URLs redirected internet users to other pages on the company’s site.
For example, United Healthcare’s “About Us” page previously had a subheading that linked to headshots and brief bios of the company’s various executives, including Thompson. Now, that same web address redirects to the company’s homepage, uhc.com.
Elevance Health, the Indianapolis-based health care conglomerate, also took down a site that featured its company executives. Instead that page now redirects to Elevance’s homepage.
The website of Elevance-owned Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield performed similarly. The page that showed its executives now links only to the general landing page for the “About Us” section of the website. The insurer made headlines earlier this week over its intention to implement a new policy in New York, Missouri, and Connecticut that would limit reimbursements for anesthesia costs. However, the company pulled back on that proposal later in the week amid widespread criticism.
The corporate world found itself grappling with the question of executive safety in the wake of Thompson’s murder. The nature of the shooting, which happened on a street corner in Midtown Manhattan, underscored the level of danger certain executives might face—even if they do not expect it.
Across the business landscape, major corporations raised the levels of security afforded their executives. In the meantime, private security firms reported a marked increase in business inquiries since the shooting.
Disclosure: UnitedHealth administers Coins2Day Media’s employer-sponsored health insurance plan.
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