(Reuters) – UnitedHealth Group spent nearly $1.7 million on security in 2024 on top executives.
The company also said it would pay $207,931 on behalf of certain family members of executives and provide personal and residential security services.
The disclosure of security spending that is not present in UnitedHealth’s previous annual filing highlights how the December shootings encourage businesses to reassess the risk of targeted violence against top management.
US drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lily also increased security spending for top executives in 2024, regulatory filings said last month.
“We believe these security services are appropriate and necessary given the risks associated with the position of the company’s executive officer,” UnitedHealth said in a filing.
Brian Thompson, former CEO of UnitedHealth Group Insurance Unity UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead on December 4th outside the Midtown Hotel in Manhattan, where he was holding an investor meeting outside the Midtown Hotel in Manhattan.
By submission, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty’s total compensation for 2024 was $26.3 million compared to the previous year’s $23.5 million.
The conglomerate spent $150,951 on Witty’s security, with $926,989 being paid to Heather Cianfrocco, CEO of the company’s health services unit Optum.
After Thompson’s murder, the health insurance company deleted the executive’s photos from the company’s website. In January, organizers of San Francisco’s major healthcare conferences increased security for participants both inside and outside the venue.
In the past few years, medical and pharmaceutical companies have typically covered the use of private jets and provided limited security-related compensation, according to previous filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy of Bengaluru, edited by Devika Syamnath)
