Did UnitedHealth Group continue with its annual Investor Conference presentations even after learning a key executive had been shot to death outside the conference hotel? No, that's not true: A Threads post provided no documentary or witness evidence to prove the company "went ahead with" its investor conference as the post states. While it's not clear exactly when the company learned of the shooting, and the company has not responded to Lead Stories requests for confirmation, reports from financial news organizations with sources inside the conference say the meeting was canceled about an hour after it began.
The claim appeared in a post on Threads (archived here) on December 4, 2024. It said:
Work less.
The United Healthcare CEO was literally shot before an investor meeting, and they still went ahead with it.
Let that be your reminder: You're not the main character. Work. Less.
Here is a screenshot of the post at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Thu Dec 5 17:42:58 2024 UTC)
On December 4, 2024, investors and analysts gathered at the New York Hilton Hotel for UnitedHealth Group's annual Investor Conference presentation (archived here). The meeting was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EST. UnitedHealthcare (archived here) is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (archived here).
According to a New York Police news conference on December 4, 2024, officers found UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot at 6:48 a.m. EST in front of the Hilton Hotel. He was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m. EST.
Thompson lived in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Police there tell Lead Stories they notified his wife of his death at 8:23 a.m. CST, or 9:23 a.m. EST, nearly a half hour after the conference in New York had begun.
According to multiple reliable news reports (archived here, here, here and here), Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, announced at 9:10 a.m. EST that the New York event would stop because of a "serious medical situation with one of our team members." None of the financial news organizations provided named sources to confirm how the meeting was cancelled, relying instead on an anonymous investor and anonymous analyst said to be in attendance.
Lead Stories reached out to multiple spokespersons for the company for confirmation of the time of the meeting's cancellation and will update this fact check when they respond. None of the leading financial news services reported UnitedHealth Group "went ahead with" its program for investors.
For additional Lead Stories fact checks into claims about the insurance industry, click here.
