UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty has stepped down for personal reasons, with the country’s biggest health insurance company suspended its full-year financial outlook due to higher than expected health costs.
According to Minnesota, the company’s chairman, Stephen Hemsley, will soon become CEO.
Hemsley was CEO of UnitedHealth Group from 2006 to 2017. He remains chairman of the company’s board of directors. Witness will serve as Senior Advisor to Hemsley.
It was a penalty for United Health, which began in December when executive Brian Thompson was targeted and killed outside a hotel in New York City. It has nothing to do with the financial operations of the $340 billion healthcare giant, but its stock has fallen badly since the attack.
“I am extremely disappointed and apologize for the performance setbacks I encountered from both the outside and internal challenges,” Hemsley said during an early conference call Tuesday.
“Many of the issues that prevent us from achieving our goals and opportunities are primarily within our control. We are optimistic about our future, as these problems are within our ability to solve them. We approach them with humility, rigor and urgency.”
The 60-year-old witty member joined the company in 2018 after serving as CEO of British drug maker Glaxosmithkline for about nine years. He was appointed CEO of UnitedHealth in February 2021, replacing Dave Wichmann.
UnitedHealth has become one of the largest companies in the country under Witty’s leadership. Last year, total revenue exceeded $400 million, up 55% from the $257 billion UnitedHealth that brought in the year before Witty became CEO.
UnitedHealth shares are high under Witty, up 60.5%.
However, United Health has had several set-offs over the past five months as he is attracting public attention for Luigi Mangione, who was charged with federal murder in the murder of Thompson last month.
The incident rattles security-worried corporate executives whilst capturing the American imagination and causing a cascade of res and online vitriol against US health insurance companies.
UnitedHealth cut its 2025 forecast last month after turning first-quarter revenue into Miss in over a decade. On Tuesday, the company completely retracted its financial forecasts and said its health costs from new Medicare Advantage members were higher than expected.
UnitedHealth’s shares, which plummeted 38% from Thompson’s ambush on December 4 in Midtown Manhattan, fell more than 12% at the opening bell.
Over 50 million people are enrolled in health insurance under UnitedHealth Group Inc. There is also an increase in the benefits managers of large pharmacies that operate prescription drug coverage, and the Optum segment, which provides care and provides technical support.
UnitedHealthCare is the nation’s largest provider of Medicare Advantage Plans with over 8 million customers. These are personally implemented in federal compensation programs primarily for people over the age of 65.