“Wanted” posters with the names and faces of health care executives have appeared on the streets of New York. Hit lists with images of bullets are circulating online with warnings that industry leaders should be afraid.
The targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the menacing threats that followed have sent a shudder through the health care industry, leading to increased security for executives and some workers. Health insurers have removed information about their top executives from company websites, canceled in-person meetings with shareholders and advised employees to work from home temporarily.
An internal New York Police Department bulletin warned that the online vitriol after the shooting could signal an immediate “elevated threat," the Associated Press reports.
Police fear that the Dec. 4 shooting could “inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence,” according to the bulletin. “Wanted” posters pasted to parking meters and construction site fences in Manhattan included photos of health care executives and the words “Deny, defend, depose” — similar to a phrase scrawled on bullets found near Thompson’s body and echoing those used by insurance industry critics. Investigators believe shooting suspect Luigi Mangione may have been motivated by hostility toward health insurers. They are studying his writings about a previous back injury, and his disdain for corporate America and the U.S. health care system. Mangione, 26, has remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday. Manhattan prosecutors are working to bring him to New York to face a murder charge. UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, said it was working with law enforcement to ensure a safe work environment and to reinforce security guidelines and building access policies. Just over a quarter of the companies in the Fortune 500 reported spending money to protect their top executives. Of those, the median payment for personal security doubled over the last three years to just under $100,000.