UnitedHealthcare’s Andrew Whitty sent the message to employees at the major insurer hours after its co-CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4.
Several senior leaders in the UnitedHealthcare are under investigation by the Department of Justice, although it is unclear whether CEO Brian Thompson was involved in that investigation before his murder.
Thompson was shot downtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning in what police are calling a targeted attack.
There have been reports that executives have been accused of insider trading and fraud, and last year the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether the nation’s largest insurer unfairly restricted competitors and operated a monopoly.
Last month, the Justice Department, along with attorneys general from Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, filed suit to block UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of rival health care and hospice provider Amedisys Inc.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO DEAD AT MANHATTAN HOTEL In ‘targeted’ attack, suspect at large
A UnitedHealthcare sign is displayed outside a store in the Queens borough of New York on Monday, January 14, 2013. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The deal, according to the complaint, would eliminate competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys.
Eliminating competition would harm patients who receive home health and hospice services, as well as insurers who contract for home health services and the nurses who provide those services, the Justice Department said.
“We are challenging this merger because home care and hospice patients and their families, who are going through some of the most difficult times of their lives, deserve affordable, quality care options,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to investigate unlawful consolidation and monopolization of the health care market that threatens to harm vulnerable patients, their families and health care providers.”
According to reports, the hackers behind the cyberattack on UNITEDHEALTH GROUP have been identified
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare was shot and killed in New York on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (Fox News Digital/UnitedHealthcare/Fox News)
The two companies view each other as close competitors in home health and hospice services, and UnitedHealth’s offer would eliminate that competition.
The Department of Justice said UnitedHealth offered to transfer certain facilities to VitalCaring Group to eliminate certain overlaps between UnitedHealth and Amedisys. But the proposal doesn’t alleviate harm to more than 100 health care, hospice and labor markets, the Justice Department added, which generate more than a billion dollars in revenue each year and serve at least 200,000 patients and employ at least 4,000 nurses.
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“American health care is in bad shape. If this $3.3 billion transaction is not stopped, UnitedHealth Group will further expand its control over home health care and hospice, threatening seniors, their families and nurses,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of Ministry of Justice This was reported by the antimonopoly agency.
FOX Business has reached out to UnitedHealth but has not yet heard back.
