The Many Controversies Surrounding UnitedHealthcare, Part 3
And the Many Possible Motives for the Murder of Its CEO, Brian Thompson
3. Antitrust Actions & Insider Trading
As ABC News reported, December 7, 2024, NYPD investigators following leads in the shooting of Brian Thompson found only two items in a backpack it is believed belonged to the suspect. The items were "a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and Monopoly money." Just as the first breadcrumbs left by the shooter pointed to facts about UnitedHealthcare's high denial rate of claims, so does the fact that Monopoly money offers other breadcrumbs about the shooter's motivations.
United Healthcare has been embroiled in several actions brought against it by the US Department of Justice over several years. November 12, 2024, DoJ, along with the Attorneys General of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York filed a civil antitrust lawsuit "to block UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UnitedHealth)’s proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of rival home health and hospice services provider Amedisys Inc. (Amedisys)." In its Press Release cited herein, DoJ alleges that the proposed merger would eliminate the competition that now exists between the two companies. Quoting from the filed Complaint, at Page 2, paragraph 3, DoJ laid out the arguments against the proposed merger of United Healthcare, Inc. with Amedisys Inc.:
As Amedisys’s former CEO and current Board Chairman said, the “pure competition” between Amedisys and UnitedHealth means the two companies “keep each other honest and we keep driving better and better quality. And who benefits from it? Our patients.”
The Complaint also alleges that the proposed merger would eliminate competition between the two companies for skilled nursing care. Page 3, paragraphs 4 of the Complaint states, "Nurses who provide home health and hospice services receive better wages and other employment terms as a result of the direct competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys." At paragraph 7, the Complaint warns that:
7. The competition at stake with the proposed merger of UnitedHealth and Amedisys is significant... UnitedHealth and Amedisys are direct competitors. If this merger proceeds, the combination of UnitedHealth and Amedisys would result in UnitedHealth’s control of 30 percent or more of the home health or hospice services in eight states.
Thus, giving United Healthcare a monopoly in home healthcare. Furthermore, at Page 6, paragraphs 16 and 17, the Complaint continues to explain the harm the proposed merger would cause.
16. UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Amedisys would ensure that
UnitedHealth, not competition, would determine outcomes for patients in
home health and hospice and for the nurses that provide those services
in hundreds of local markets across the country.
17. The
vulnerable patients who receive vital home health and hospice services,
as well as the nurses who provide those services, deserve the benefits
of competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys.
This litigation and others are believed to have prompted Thompson, UnitedHealth Group Chairman Stephen Hemsley, and two other United Healthcare executives to sell a considerable number of shares each held in UnitedHealthcare. News of the DoJ actions to investigate and block United Healthcare acquisitions of competitors resulted in a steep drop in the value of United Healthcare stock. According to a report by Crain's New York Business, April 16, 2024, "The stock has fallen about 15% so far this year through Wednesday’s closing price compared with an 8% gain in the S&P 500 Index." The same report included the chart above that was compiled by Bloomberg which detailed the relationships between the sales of stocks by Unfired Healthcare executives; the declines in stock values; and how those declines relate to the DoJ investigations of United Healthcare.
There is nothing new about United Healthcare executives selling off stocks ahead of a DoJ investigation into its acquisitions. Another class action was filed May 14, 2024, by The City Of Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund. [pdf will open] The defendants named in the lawsuit are: Unitedhealth Group Inc., Andrew Witty, Stephen Hemsley, and Brian Thompson. This suit arose out of the 2022 acquisition of Change Healthcare by United Healthcare. Although the merger was did go through, the DoJ reopened its antitrust investigation into United Healthcare. At Pages 3-4 paragraph 8 of the Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that the fact of the reopened DoJ action was not made public until the Wall Street Journal broke the news in a report dated February 24, 2024. Thus, Plaintiffs further allege that, "As a result of this disclosure, the price of UnitedHealth stock declined by $27 per share, erasing nearly $25 billion in shareholder value."
The crux of the lawsuit against Thompson and the other executives of United Healthcare is laid out on Page 4, paragraph of the Complaint filed by Firefighters' Investment Fund.
9. UnitedHealth was aware of the DOJ investigation since at least October 2023. Instead of disclosing this material investigation to investors or the public, UnitedHealth insiders sold more than $120 million of their personally held UnitedHealth shares. In the four months between learning about the DOJ investigation and the investigation becoming public, UnitedHealth’s Chairman Stephen Hemsley sold over $102 million of his personally held UnitedHealth shares and Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, sold over $15 million of his personally held UnitedHealth shares.
Clearly, these are not honorable people. Individuals who, in a better world, would not be allowed to be in charge of an entity whose actions impact the very lives of so many people who depend on good decisions being made on their behalf. And yet, at every turn of the wheel, these self-serving miscreants only considered their well-being and not the well-being of others who would also likely be affected by their actions.
Conclusion
According to an article that appeared on the news website, Vox, December 7, 2024, in the wake of the Thompson killing, online forums have been filed with posts from people who felt harmed by the actions of Brian Thompson and UnitedHealthcare. There has been a definite lack of sympathy among much of the public over the fate suffered by Mr. Thompson. Many of these individuals posting their opinions online were themselves or their loved ones victims of the bad actions detailed in the three parts of this series. As the Vox article stated the case:
Of course Thompson and his family deserve our compassion. But the system he was a key part of frequently operated with little compassion for the humans at the other end of his decisions, and the responses that default to jokes about being “out of network” underscore that.
In a report dated, December 6, 2024, HealthLeaders has estimated that United Healthcare denies 1 out every 3 claims it is presented with, while the industry average for denial of claims is 16%. Is Mr. Thompson's shooter one of the individuals harmed by UnitedHealthcare's denial of a claim? The words, "Delay, Deny, Defend," that were written on bullet casings leads one to believe that may be the case. Of course, the new information about Monopoly money being part of the mystery leads to a different conclusion about the shooter's motives considering all the antitrust actions brought against United Healthcare.
When the entirety of the questionable — if not down right nefarious — actions taken by UnitedHealthcare executives, and the resulting lawsuits that arose out of the actions, are considered together, all these events begin to seem somehow intertwined. Readers of Part 1 of this series will remember that Change Healthcare was the division of UnitedHealthcare that had experienced the massive data breach in February 2024 that resulted in so many negative impacts on patient care. That cyber attack spawned several class action lawsuits. When DoJ opposition to the merger of Change Healthcare with UnitedHealthcare was made public, the resulting declines in UnitedHealthcare stock values prompted a sell-off of UnitedHealthcare stocks held by its executives. That sell-off prompted another lawsuit. There exist so many tentacles of the one Hydra.
It is not too far of a leap to imagine how one person or one family could have been harmed by all the events of 2024, and continue to be harmed to this day. Each of the lawsuits discussed in this series represent real people who experienced real harms as the result of decisions and actions taken by UnitedHealthcare executives. The cyber attack discussed in Part 1 caused patients to not receive timely care when prescriptions could not be filled. When hospitals could not operate as the modern healthcare faculties that they are meant be caused further harm to patient care. Once that debacle was remedied over time, we can imagine the same patient denied a procedure or other care due to an AI with a 90% failure rate, as was discussed in Part 2. The final insults and injuries could have come when the value of an investment fund plummeted as the value of UnitedHealthcare's stock price plummeted.
The easy assumption about the shooter's motives is that the gunman imagines himself as a sort of real life Avenger, who is intent on righting a litany of wrongs committed by UnitedHealthcare executives. Brian Thompson was not, however, at the top of the UnitedHealthcare chain of command. That person is Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Group. Only time will tell if Mr. Witty will be the next target of this Avenger.
Whenever people play fast and loose with the lives of other people tragedy often follows. And Brian Thompson was just the easiest sacrificial lamb to target and made to pay for the sins of all involved.
Gerald Reiff
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