Twin Cities’ security experts say killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO highlights risks in industry

Twin Cities’ security experts say the New York City killing of locally based UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson highlights the threats to the industry, and the balance between security needs and an executive’s preferences.

There was a security detail assigned to Thompson during his trip to New York, but security wasn’t with him when he was fatally shot Wednesday, CNN reported Thursday, according to a source they said was familiar with the company’s security. It wasn’t known why.

Health insurance companies have responded by increasing security. Medica — headquartered in Minnetonka, as is UnitedHealthCare — temporarily closed its office buildings “out of an abundance of caution,” a company spokesperson said Thursday. UCare, a nonprofit offering health coverage across Minnesota and western Wisconsin that is based in Minneapolis, has taken the extra precaution of locking the office’s front door during business hours.

The reason behind the killing of Thompson remained unknown on Thursday, but investigators believe it was a targeted attack outside a Manhattan hotel, where the 50-year-old was walking to his company’s annual investor conference.

Ammunition used had messages written in permanent marker with the words ““deny,” “defend” and “depose,” which are commonly used by attorneys and insurance industry critics to describe tactics used to avoid paying claims, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Risk management effectiveness dependent on info

Jameson Ritter, a former Burnsville police officer who was assigned to the FBI’s Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force, went on to work for UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthCare’s parent company. He left the company in 2021 after serving as lead of the global threat management program, and now runs Threatwise Global. He said the threat management program at UHG was robust.

Threat management professionals’ “jobs are to eat, drink and sleep about security and risk and violence and danger and all of the other many things that we worry about,” Ritter said. He said he knows of professionals who’ve had shootings, domestic violence or other incidents at their facilities or their parking lots, and they may ask themselves afterward, “What did I miss?”

“The truth is, all of these systems are built on human beings and therefore fallible,” Ritter said. “… Some people share, some people don’t, and so we can only do the best we can with the information we have at hand to be proactive and prevent violence.”

Mike Olson used to be a St. Paul police officer and a U.S. Secret Service senior special agent. He’s co-founder of 360 Security Services, a risk management, cybersecurity and investigations firm. The company’s name is a reference to the Secret Service approach of reviewing potential threats — “what’s above you, what’s below you, what’s around you, and not just physical, but cyber threats,” Olson said.

People getting Secret Service protection “had to accept our protection, whether they like it or not,” though there’s still “a give and take, as far as their personal privacy and giving them that space when they don’t need somebody on their heels,” Olson said.

Olson doesn’t know the circumstances of security for Thompson, but said the number of security staff, whether they were working 24/7 or between designated scheduled duty hours, and Thompson’s own preferences may have been factors in why they weren’t there.

Philip Klein, whose Texas-based security firm provided bodyguard services a few times to Thompson between 2000 and 2009 told the Wall Street Journal he was shocked there wasn’t security with Thompson Wednesday morning. “It was normal operation for that company that they would have their own private security team to take care of their corporate executives,” he said.

Heightened security

Former St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell, who now runs the Axtell Group that specializes in risk management and mitigation, said the shooting in New York will bring more urgency “around what organizations are doing to protect their senior executive leadership teams and their CEO.”

“Every organization has its own unique culture, every organization worries about tragedies that can occur like this,” he said.

Though a motive isn’t known in Thompson’s killing, the case “puts a spotlight on the potential risk that, especially executives, but potentially anybody in health care-related industries, the insurance industry, could face,” Olson said. That could come from anger of being denied coverage, poor service, disgruntled or terminated employees, for example.

Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News on Wednesday that he told her “there were some people that had been threatening him.” She didn’t have details but suggested the threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage. Thompson lived in Maple Grove and had two sons.

Thompson’s homicide is prompting other local health insurance companies to take action.

Medica has increased security for both executives and other employees, said Greg Bury, public relations manager. There have been “no specific threats related to our campuses,” he said, adding that the temporary closing of their office buildings is “out of an abundance of caution.” Employees are working remotely. Medica has offices in Minnetonka, Duluth, Fargo, N.D.; Madison, Wis.; and Omaha, Neb.

At UCare in Minneapolis, “we have no reason to believe there are safety issues … and we already have comprehensive safety protocols in place,” but they’ve taken the “extra precaution of locking our front door during business hours,” said Wendy Wicks, communications and public relations associate director.