“I’m deeply disappointed in and apologize for the performance
setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal
challenges,” Hemsley said during an early Tuesday conference call. “Many
of the issues standing in the way of achieving our goals as well as our
opportunities are largely within our control. I am optimistic about our
future as these issues are within our capacity to resolve. We will
approach them with humility, rigor and urgency.”
The 60 year-old Witty joined the company in 2018 after serving about
nine years as CEO of the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. He was named UnitedHealth’s CEO in February 2021, replacing Dave Wichmann.
UnitedHealth became one of the nation’s largest companies under
Witty’s leadership. Total revenue topped $400 billion last year, a 55%
increase from the $257 billion UnitedHealth brought in the year before
Witty became CEO.
Shares of UnitedHealth rocketed higher under Witty, too, up 60.5% since he took the company’s top job.
Yet there have been several setbacks for UnitedHealth over the past five months as it wrestles with the national attention on Luigi Mangione, who was indicted last month on a federal murder charge in the killing of Thompson.
FILE
– Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, the CEO
of UnitedHealthcare, appears in Manhattan state court in New York,
Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP, File
The case has captured the American imagination, setting off a cascade of resentment and online vitriol toward U.S. health insurers while rattling corporate executives concerned about security.
UnitedHealth cut its
2025 forecast last month following its first quarterly earnings miss in
more than a decade. On Tuesday the company withdrew that financial
forecast entirely, saying that medical costs from new Medicare Advantage
members were higher than expected.
[...]
Parasitic healthcare manipulators deserve the greatest degree of scorn imaginable. Of course, their and others' opinions may differ.
Along those lines, Trump is floating the idea of squeezing Big Pharma.
The link and headline say "promises." Crabgrass saying "floating the idea" seems the better discretionary phrasing. I look forward, but think of what's been before.
