Mike Porter, professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, recently spoke with the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal about the need for UnitedHealthcare to reassure investors and address public concerns following the tragic killing of CEO Brian Thompson.
From the story:
After last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, it didn’t take long for social media posts to shift from empathy for the victim to outrage over his company’s health insurance practices – a potential public relations quagmire for the insurance giant. ...
The Minnetonka-based health care company is Minnesota’s largest public company and one of the biggest health care businesses in the country, offering insurance to more than 50 million Americans.
It is also no stranger to criticism. The company is facing a class action lawsuit over the algorithm it uses to process claims, and a U.S. Senate report released in October found its denial rate for post-acute care surged from 10.9% in 2010 to 22.7% in 2022. Thompson and two other UnitedHealth executives were also facing a lawsuit over stock sales. ...
But the company also must face investors, who may have very different priorities than the company’s social media critics. Mike Porter, a marketing professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, said UnitedHealth also needs to calm the nerves of shareholders, noting the company’s stock fell in the days following the killing.
First priority, he said, should be ensuring a steady hand on its insurance business. “They’re going to want to quickly get on a succession statement,” he said. “They need to be talking about how the organization is going to move forward, and in general terms, how they are going to position themselves against the outcries from the public on some of these issues.”
