Just Desserts

It looks like the level of evil at UnitedHealth is such that even big investors are complaining that it was bad for their bottom line.

Investors are accusing UnitedHealthcare's parent group of conning the public to boost profits — and, ultimately, contributing to the murder of CEO Brian Thompson.

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed earlier this week in New York, UnitedHealth Group investor Roberto Faller claims that the insurer profited from a series of "aggressive, anti-consumer tactics" that harmed clients and investors alike.

"UnitedHealth had, for years, engaged in a corporate strategy of denying health coverage in order to boost its profits, and ultimately, its share price," the lawsuit claims. "This anti-consumer and, at times, unlawful strategy resulted in regulatory scrutiny (as well as public angst) against UnitedHealth, which ultimately resulted in the murder of Brian Thompson."

Yes, you read that right: these investors are claiming that UHC's craven policies contributed to the murder of its CEO — a wild admission, and one that we've reached out to Faller's attorneys to get more information about.

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Along with being allegedly misled about the company's finances after the assassination, the motion also suggests that Thompson's murder resulted in a massive strategy change: that it wasn't willing to pursue its widespread claims-denying "as a result of heightened scrutiny...as well as open hostility."

Though most people would consider that shift a good thing, the proposed investor class is calling bull on the entire scheme because, ultimately, it led to them losing money.

This is the first time that I've seen investors claiming that being too evil was bad for business.

It is a bit of a mind-f%$#.

In response, will replace its current CEO with the prior CEO Stephen Helmsley, who, in addition to creating the UnitedHealth that we all hate, was the target of  investigations of fraud (Stock option back-dating) during his first time as CEO.

It does not seem to me that UHC is in the least bit chastened by recent developments, which include allegations of medicare fraud as well as allegations that they paid nursing homes to keep critically ill residents out of hospital and opressured these nursing homes to classify residents as DNR (Do Not Recusitate) against the wishes of these residents and their families. 

This ain't gonna end until we start frog-marching senior UHC executives out of their offices in handcuffs.