Health care fallout, plus the 100 Most Powerful People in Business dissected

All the NEO Murderer updates:Luigi Mangione/Brian ThompsonMangione attended elite schoolsBA/MS PennGilman School, an elite all-boys preparatory school in Baltimore: In his valedictorian speech, Mangione praised classmates for "challenging the world"Mangione comes from a wealthy and influential Baltimore familyMangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a prominent multimillionaire real-estate developer in Baltimore who died in 2008Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, MarylandHe favorably reviewed the Unabomber Manifesto: Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and Its Future""He was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people," Mangione wrote. "While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.""'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators,'" Mangione quoted.He founded an app and worked in techHe was arrested while on his laptop at a McDonald's, the police saidThe complaint said that when asked for identification, Mangione gave police officers a New Jersey driver's license with the name "Mark Rosario." When asked why he lied, Mangione replied, "I clearly shouldn't have," the complaint said.Police in Pennsylvania also found a three-page, handwritten “manifesto” taking aim at the health care industry for prioritizing profits over patient care by two law enforcement officials, according to the New York Times.Some reactionsCEO killing, rage over insurance plunges UnitedHealth into crisisBrian Thompson’s death has become a symbol of revenge over denied medical bills and lack of access to necessary care, an issue that some UnitedHealth employees say they’re growing increasingly anxious about.The vitriol following the shooting sparked a reckoning among some UnitedHealth employees. Much of the public animosity was aimed at the way insurance companies prevent Americans from getting the care their doctors prescribe. Some employees grappled with the idea that their paychecks were padded in part by the practice of denying care.Witty, in a video to staff last week, attempted to address the rage but failed to change the narrative for some workers. “As you’ve seen, people are writing things we simply don’t recognize, are aggressive, inappropriate and disrespectful,” he said, urging employees to ignore the media. “There’s no value in engaging.”But:Before the investor day last week was cut short, Witty used some of his time on stage to acknowledge the widespread dissatisfaction with his industry. “You only have to walk into a room with five people to hear four stories of frustration. ‘I couldn’t find a doctor, I didn’t know where to go. It’s too difficult to understand,’” he said in a room full of financial analysts and investors.The culture at the top was shaped for years by veterans of the defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where Chairman and former CEO Stephen Hemsley once worked. A previous CEO, William McGuire, unceremoniously left the company and settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over backdating stock options that regulators alleged enriched him and other executives.In recent years, a series of acquisitions have consolidated UnitedHealth’s position so much that when a cyberattack took out its Change Healthcare subsidiary, doctors offices and hospitals across the country were paralyzed. That market dominance has come under review by the Department of Justice, Bloomberg News has reported. Members of Congress who have called for a breakup of the conglomerate.Thompson was one of a handful of executives who sold UnitedHealth shares after the company learned it was under investigation by the DOJ, but before that information was shared with the public, Bloomberg reported. The company’s stock fell when the DOJ investigation was reported. Thompson sold $15.1 million worth of shares, according to Bloomberg calculations.Market insanity: rage of insurer causes murder of NEO, up 1%.  Social media outpour of rage over insurers because of NEO murder, down 8.5%1-star McDonald’s reviews and sympathetic merch: Companies try to stop online support for CEO killer suspectTed Cruz Accuses Luigi Mangione of Being a 'Leftist' Despite Social Media Posts Praising Tucker Carlson and Decrying the 'Woke Mind Virus'After thousands celebrated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killing, now even top internet sleuths are not willing to help in investigation; what's the reason?“This sparking of online praise for the killing or the killer is shocking in nature”“some are talking about Thompson being one of those responsible for the fragile state of the US Healthcare industry, which is shocking as, during other cases netizens usually post videos, condolencesFrom the Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper: “delivering profits of a whopping $16.4 billion, in the previous year alone”How UnitedHealthcare and other insurers use AI to deny claims UnitedHealthcare and Humana have been sued over their use of algorithms to determine coverage of care for some patientsIn October, a report from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showed that the nation’s insurers have been using AI-powered tools to deny some claims from Medicare Advantage plan subscribers.The report found that UnitedHealthcare’s denial rate for post-acute care — health care needed to transition people out of hospitals and back into their homes — for people with Medicare Advantage plans rose to 22.7% in 2022, from 10.9% in 2020.The rise coincides with UnitedHealthcare’s implementation of an AI model called nH Predict, originally developed by naviHealth, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that has since been rebranded.Algorithms like nH Predict can analyze millions of data points to generate predictions and recommendations by comparing patients to others with apparently similar characteristics, according to an article on JAMA Network. However, the article cautions that claims of enhanced accuracy through advanced computational methods are often exaggerated.Both UnitedHealth and Humana are currently facing lawsuits over their use of nH Predict. The suits allege that insurers pressured case managers to follow the algorithm’s length-of-stay recommendations, even when clinicians and families objected.One lawsuit filed last year against UnitedHealth claims that 90% of the algorithm’s recommendations are reversed on appeal.The lawsuit states that UnitedHealthcare wrongfully denied elderly patients care by “overriding their treating physicians’ determinations as to medically necessary care based on an AI model that Defendants know has a 90% error rate.”Leaked video shows UnitedHealth CEO defending practices that prevent ‘unnecessary’ careAccording to ValuePenguin, a site that helps users compare insurance plans’ costs, UnitedHealth’s 32% claims denial rate was twice the industry average. Disclosure?CVS, Anthem, other big corporations remove executive photos from their websites after UnitedHealthcare CEO shootingUnitedHealthcare CEO killing spurs Centene to hold virtual meeting and insurers to pull exec photosUnitedHealthcare and other major insurance companies pull company and board leadership bios from their websites after executive’s killingUnitedHealthcare and other insurers are pulling info about execs offline after a CEO was killed SecurityThis was preventable’: Corporate world shudders at new risks after slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEOHere’s how the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO will change executive security moving forwardExperts say companies will more closely track their corporate and executives’ social media accounts for any potential threats.Targeted killing of UnitedHealth CEO sends a chill among executivesUnitedHealthcare CEO shooting reveals complexities in safeguarding corporate executivesThomson death benefits payout: $20,893,067100 Most Powerful People in Business Main Takeaways:Andrew Witty (51)The actual CEO at UnitedHealthThe company has been in the spotlight this year after suffering a major cyberattack, and Witty testified before Congress that data from “maybe” one-third of Americans was stolen.!28.5 POC/17.5 FMary Barra (9) was a DEI placement, Sorry, Mary.One black man? And it’s a 17-year-old from a horrible restaurant. Sorry, Damola Adamolekun (89)Became CEO in August 2024; bankruptcy plan approved 10 days laterWhere’s Lowe’s CEO/Chair and FedEx board member Marvin Ellison?How about Eaton ($143B) CEO/Chair Craig Arnold?Also Nom chair at Medtronic ($107B) where he has 11% influenceDaniel Ek (37) way higher than Tik Tok founder and ByteDance Chair Zhang Yiming (92) from Spotifybut nobody from Snap or RedditCarlos Tavares (62)“Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, is a self-described “petrol-head” whom colleagues view as a “Samurai” laser-focused on building competitive car brands.”“on a daunting path to turn around the carmaker’s fortunes before he retires in 2026. Stellantis is dealing with a bloated inventory following unpopular price hikes, with profits nearly halving in the first half of 2024 to $5.6 billion”Fired last weeK: Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares lost control of the automaker with ‘arrogant’ mistakes, sources sayDoesn’t the fact that co-CEOs are listed together undermine the entire list? It means the position is powerful and not the person:Netflix: Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters (41)KKR: Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae One of the most powerful people in business in the world doesn’t even have a picture? Charlwin Mao (77): CEO and Cofounder of Chinese social media company XiaohongshuSatya Nadella (3) is more powerful than Mark Zuckerberg (7) and Jeff Bezos (11)?