MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — Brian Thompson was a mainstay on UnitedHealth Group’s leadership team, working up the ranks over two decades to become one of the most powerful health insurance executives in the country.
Those who knew him struggled to process the news Wednesday that Thompson, CEO of the company’s UnitedHealthcare division, had been shot and killed in New York City ahead of the company’s annual investor conference, an abrupt and tragic end to Thompson’s ascent.
Under Thompson’s watch, UnitedHealthcare has maintained its position as the largest health insurance company in America — on pace to generate roughly $300 billion in revenue this year. He and other senior leaders especially prioritized Medicare Advantage, the controversial alternative to the government’s traditional Medicare program that now covers a majority of the nation’s older adults.
UnitedHealthcare has roughly 9.5 million enrollees in its Medicare Advantage plans, or almost 30% of the market and the most of any insurer. The company provides or manages health insurance for more than 50 million people in all.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson,” UnitedHealth said in a statement. “Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him.”
Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Thompson’s sister-in-law, Maria Reveiz, described him as a wonderful person and hard worker.
“We are shocked and heartbroken over this senseless murder,” Reveiz said. “We, like the rest of the world, found out online, which is shameful. Brian was a wonderful person, a fabulous father, and this is very unfair.”
Reveiz said Thompson came from a “real, down-to-earth, hardworking family” from Jewell, Iowa, a town of about 1,200 people located an hour north of Des Moines.
Thompson, 50, lived in Maple Grove, Minn., with his wife and two sons. His wife, Paulette “Pauley” Thompson, is a physical therapist at Park Nicollet, which is part of the HealthPartners system. No one answered the door at the Thompson residence when a STAT reporter stopped by Wednesday morning.
The towering home with two large Christmas planters on the porch is located in an affluent, relatively new subdivision where homes are valued at between $1 million and $2 million. County property records show the Thompson home, built in 2012, was valued at $1.5 million last year. The couple also owns another home one block away.
Thompson was a regular on UnitedHealth’s earnings calls and investor events, including the annual conferences attended by stock analysts and Wall Street financiers.
“This is certainly surprising and tragic,” said Gary Taylor, who used to cover UnitedHealth and other health care stocks at TD Cowen. “Brian was well-respected by [Wall] Street.”
Thompson advocated for the current health care system and the Affordable Care Act instead of broader reforms. In a 2022 podcast produced by UnitedHealth, Thompson and two other guests talked about how to provide coverage to the nation’s 27 million people who have no health insurance. Thompson said he believed the existing commercial and government insurance programs were the answer.
“Look, we get it. Our health system is not perfect,” Thompson said on the podcast. “But we do believe that the infrastructure that we have here in America is sound and the core componentry that, I believe, is needed to expand access and ultimately achieve universal coverage is in place.”
During that podcast, Thompson lauded the “existing platforms like the [ACA] exchanges and like Medicaid that we already have in the marketplace today,” both of which bring in billions of dollars in revenue for UnitedHealthcare. He said he also wanted Congress to “permanently extend” enhanced subsidies for ACA plans.
New York police said on Wednesday that they had not yet identified a suspect or a motive in Thompson’s killing, which they described as targeted. Thompson’s wife told NBC News that her husband had been receiving threats. The Maple Grove Police Department said no calls for service had been made to the couple’s homes in the past two years.
UnitedHealth does not provide security stipends to its executives, according to its latest compensation filings. Police said Thompson appeared to be alone when he was shot.
Thompson graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997, according to his LinkedIn profile. That page notes he was class valedictorian and was a Carver Scholar, an award given to students at Iowa universities who’ve struggled to overcome social and economic hurdles.
After graduating, Thompson joined PwC, the global accounting and consulting firm, where he worked as an auditing manager and later on mergers and acquisitions across the automotive, retail, and manufacturing industries.
He was involved in insurance industry transactions while at PwC, experience that set the stage for him to join UnitedHealth in 2004. He began in corporate development and was tasked with handling various aspects of the company’s mergers and acquisitions at a time when the company was rapidly expanding through deals. Thompson subsequently worked his way up to chief financial officer for UnitedHealthcare’s commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid programs before becoming CEO of all of UnitedHealthcare in 2021.
As the company’s Medicare Advantage business has grown, so has scrutiny from government watchdogs, whistleblowers, and auditors. UnitedHealth still faces a Department of Justice lawsuit that alleges medical coding fraud within its Medicare Advantage operations. UnitedHealth is also facing a lawsuit over its use of algorithms and artificial intelligence to deny care for older adults, which was the subject of a yearlong STAT investigation.
Medicare Advantage has become a focal point within UnitedHealth’s burgeoning collection of physicians and clinicians. UnitedHealth’s medical practices have prioritized Medicare Advantage enrollees and encouraged clinicians to code as many health conditions as possible as a way to generate more revenue, even if those conditions seemed dubious.
Thompson made $9.1 million in 2023, a figure that includes his salary and bonus, as well as the actual realized gains of his stock.
