Health care fallout, plus the 100 Most Powerful People in Business dissected
Live from an ESG-themed cruise to Omaha, Nebraska, it’s an all-new Terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today's wet wool sock called December 10th 2024: More about the NEO Murder and the 100 Most Powerful People in Business!
Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.
DAMION1
All the NEO Murderer updates:
Luigi Mangione/Brian Thompson
Mangione attended elite schools
BA/MS Penn
Gilman 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 family
Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a prominent multimillionaire real-estate developer in Baltimore who died in 2008
Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Maryland
He 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 tech
He was arrested while on his laptop at a McDonald's, the police said
The 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 reactions
CEO killing, rage over insurance plunges UnitedHealth into crisis
Brian 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 suspect
Ted 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, condolences
From 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 patients
In 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’ care
According 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 shooting
UnitedHealthcare CEO killing spurs Centene to hold virtual meeting and insurers to pull exec photos
UnitedHealthcare and other major insurance companies pull company and board leadership bios from their websites after executive’s killing
UnitedHealthcare and other insurers are pulling info about execs offline after a CEO was killed
Security
This was preventable’: Corporate world shudders at new risks after slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Here’s how the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO will change executive security moving forward
Experts 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 executives
UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting reveals complexities in safeguarding corporate executives
Thomson death benefits payout: $20,893,067
100 Most Powerful People in Business Main Takeaways:
Andrew Witty (51)
The actual CEO at UnitedHealth
The 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 F
Mary 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 later
Where’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% influence
Daniel Ek (37) way higher than Tik Tok founder and ByteDance Chair Zhang Yiming (92) from Spotify
but nobody from Snap or Reddit
Carlos 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 say
Doesn’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 Xiaohongshu
Satya Nadella (3) is more powerful than Mark Zuckerberg (7) and Jeff Bezos (11)?
CEOs more powerful than their founders?
Satya Nadella (3) vs. BIll Gates (22)
Sundar Pichai (10) vs. Sergey Brin and Larry Page (33)
Ellison still chair. Even his son is something: David owns Skydance Media which just bought Paramount where he will become CEO/Chair
But not: Andy Jassy (26) vs. Jeff Bezos (11)
MATT1
Most powerful who?
Mukesh Ambani (12)
Ren Zhengfei (14)
Wang Chuanfu (19)
Lars Jorgensen (29)
Dave Ricks (31)
Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae (32)
CC Wei (40)
Yasir Al-Rumayyan (45)
Jonathan Gray (46)
Brian Armstrong (50)
Grace Wang (56)
Lei Jun (57)
Carol Tome (59)
Gail Boudreaux (60)
Robin Zeng (61)
Akio Toyoda (63)
Nicolas Hieronimus (65)
Nicolai Tangen (68)
Helen Wong (71)
George Kurtz (76)
Charlwin Mao (77)
Garry Tan (84)
Jay Y Lee (85)
Damola Adamolekun (89)
Zhang Yiming (92)
Brian Sikes (93)
Catherine MacGregor (95)
Josh Kushner (96)
Tricia Griffith (100)
Methodology for Fortune 100 Most Powerful Executives
Size of the business the person runs, based on our screen that factors in mid-term (three-year) and short-term (past 12 months) revenue and profit growth, profitability, and market value.
Health of the business, based on trailing 12-month measures of liquidity, operating efficiency, and solvency.
Innovation: Has the person accomplished something nobody else has and that competitors followed?
Influence: How greatly do their words and actions shape the behavior of others?
Trajectory: Where is the person in the arc of their career?
Impact: Is this person using their power to make the world a better place?
Executives not in FF database:
Altman (8) in, but not enough data
Ren Zhengfei (14) in, but not enough data
Chuanfu (19) not in
Gates (22) in, not active
Sweet (23) not in
Jorgensen (29) not in, quirk of EU boards
Koch (39) not in
Amodei (48) not in
Collison boys (53) not in
Griffin (54) not in
Tangen (68) not in
Luckey (81) not in
Ulukaya (83) not in
Tan (84) not in
Singer (86) not in
Dyson (88) not in
Adamolekun (89) not in
Blume (90) not in, EU quirk
Bloomberg (91) not in
Things I noticed:
First I didn’t know was Mukesh Ambani at 12, overall didn’t know 26
Andrew Witty and Walmsley are the back to back CEOs of GSK
Tavares just quit in disgrace
Charlwin Mao (77) has no picture!
Stats
Average Performance metrics
EBITDA: 0.464
Worst: Roelef Botha, 0.050
Best: CC Wei, 0.994
Carbon intensity: 0.567
Worst: Buffett, 0.015
Best: Tim Cook, 0.741
TSR: 0.518
Worst: Robin Zhang, 0.127 (second, Neal Mohan, 0.178)
Best: Joe Bae, 0.917
Controversies: 0.331
Worst: Woods, Doug McMillon, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sundar Pichai - all 0.000, worst in the database
Best: Tarang Amin, Helen Wong, CC Wei, George Kurtz, Larry Culp, Neal Mohan, Robin Zhang - all 1.000, best in the database
Influence: 22%
Highest non executive: Mellody Hobson, 20.4% influence at SBUX
Lowest non executive: Catherine MacGregor, 0.3% influence at MSFT
Second lowest: Mellody Hobson, 0.9% influence at JPM
Network power: $26tn average
Top: Yasir Al-Rumayyan, $118tn
Bottom: Grace Wang, $33bn
Realized pay 2023: $40m average
Chesky, $942m
Friends
MSFT: Nadella, Walmsley, MacGregor, Hoffman
Disney: Catz, Barra, Iger
JPM: Dimon, Novakovic, Hobson
Adobe: Narayen, Ricks, Amon
