Navigate the healthcare industry
Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.
UnitedHealthcare’s stock shot up and then plummeted in the hours after CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside a hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
Thompson was on the way to an investors meeting around 6:45am when the shooting happened. The 50-year-old had worked at United—which is among the largest healthcare companies in the US—in various roles for more than 20 years.
While the gunman is still at large, authorities believe it was a targeted shooting, according to the AP, as the bullet casings had the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” written on them. Thompson had reportedly received threats as well, the CEO’s wife told NBC News.
When the markets opened at 9:30am following the incident on Wednesday, United’s stock rose 2.9% to $622.83 per share from $605.23 from market close the day before. But the stock began to drop around market close on Wednesday, and by 10:30am on Thursday, United’s stock was down 4.8% at $592.64 per share.
Zooming out. Under Thompson’s leadership, United increased revenue by $8.5 billion in Q3, reported in October (though it fell below Wall Street estimates), bringing the company’s total earnings to $100.8 billion year over year. In Q2, United reported $98.9 billion in revenue and net income of $4.2 billion, bouncing back from a cyberattack that impacted its bottom line in Q1.
According to a Senate report on Medicare Advantage published in October, United and CVS had 3x more prior authorization request denials for post-acute services, compared to the companies’ overall denial rates. Meanwhile, Humana’s rate of post-acute care prior authorization denials was 16x its overall denial rate.