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The man who gunned down the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare may have been denied health coverage, a former FBI assistant director has said.
Frank Figliuzzi was reacting to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York on Wednesday morning.
"UnitedHealthcare has 1.7 million insured people and many are upset with the denial of coverage," Figliuzzi told Newsweek on Thursday.
Thompson was gunned down shortly before 7 a.m. on Wednesday near the Hilton Midtown in what the New York Police Department (NYPD) said was likely to have been "a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack."
Figliuzzi noted a recent controversy about UnitedHealthcare's lack of payouts for medical insurance claims.
In April, over 100 demonstrators protested at the company's headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota - where Thompson was based - claiming that the company was denying legitimate insurance claims.
They organized another protest in July, when over 100 people demonstrators again turned up the headquarters. Eleven demonstrators were arrested, according to Minnetonka police.
During both protests, activists held a large banner that read "United [Denies] Healthcare."
The demonstrations were organised by the pressure group, the People's Action Institute, which alleged in July that UnitedHealthcare was involved in the "systemic practice of refusing to approve care through prior authorization denials or pay for care through claim denials."
ABC News reported three shell casings bearing the words "deny," "defend" and "depose" had been recovered from the murder scene by police.
The words found on the shell casings may reference a book published by Professor Jay M. Feinman, an insurance law expert titled Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
The book argues some companies in the insurance industry have been actively denying legitimate claims. Newsweek is not able to confirm any link between the words that were reportedly on the shell casings and the book.
The phrase "Delay, Deny, Defend" is used throughout the insurance industry and might not be related specifically to the book.
Figliuzzi, who worked as a corporate security executive at a Fortune 10 company after his retirement from the FBI, said that there were other possible motives.
"It occurred outside the investors' meeting, which was notable for the CEO's presence. Is an investor unhappy with the company's performance?" he asked.
"There are also 500,000 employees who might be disgruntled," he said.
Newsweek sought email comment from UnitedHealthcare and the NYPD on Thursday.
First responders rushed the CEO to Mount Sinai West hospital after the attack, where he was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m. ET. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference on Wednesday that Thompson was shot in both the back and the right calf.
ABC reported that the shooter was caught on surveillance video at 5 a.m. on the morning of the shooting outside Frederick Douglass Houses, a public housing project on the Upper West Side.
They also reported that police are closing in on the suspect's identity and obtained a search warrant for an address where he might have been staying.
CNN reported that that address is a hostel at 103rd street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, where the suspected gunman was sharing a dorm room with two other men.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more