Bob Herman , 2025-04-21 22:26:00
UnitedHealth Group spent nearly $1.7 million on security for its top executives last year, and it appears the expenses all occurred in the final weeks of 2024, after top executive Brian Thompson was killed, new filings show.
Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the company’s health insurance division. He was shot and killed in early December, before the start of UnitedHealth’s annual investor conference in New York City. This month, a grand jury indicted Luigi Mangione, Thompson’s alleged killer, who potentially faces the death penalty if convicted.
UnitedHealth did not immediately respond to questions about the filing.
While the filing covers all of last year, there are a couple reasons to think the security spending dates from the period after Thompson’s death. For one, the documents show that Thompson incurred no security costs up to his death. Plus, in prior years, UnitedHealth did not provide any significant security stipends to its executives.
After Thompson died, the public steered its support toward Mangione and pilloried UnitedHealth as a symbol of the country’s dysfunctional health care system. UnitedHealth, and other insurers, responded by beefing up security for top leaders.
STAT previously reported that police were called to UnitedHealth’s campus more than 100 times, often to respond to threats, in the wake of Thompson’s killing. The company has also increased security measures at its office buildings.
Heather Cianfrocco, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s Optum division that owns medical groups, pharmacy benefits, and other health care service and technology companies, incurred the highest “executive security” costs at just under $1 million. UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty received a little more than $150,000 worth of security expenses.
UnitedHealth has previously declined to comment on Thompson’s security arrangements, though New York police have said he was alone when he was shot.
UnitedHealth paid Thompson’s estate $28.7 million last year, due mostly to stock that was converted into cash following his death. The company also gave Thompson’s family more than $271,000 to cover “funeral expenses, family transportation, home security costs, and related support,” according to the document.
Witty earned more than $16.4 million last year, according to the actual realized gains of his stock. Most of that total is from stock gains. Witty and other executives received lower bonuses last year due to the financial losses stemming from the cyberattack on UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare subsidiary.
