United Healthcare CEO Andrew Witty has stepped down for personal reasons and the company suspended its full-year financial outlook amid higher-than-expected medical costs.
Chairman Stephen Hemsley will step into the CEO role effective immediately. He was previously CEO from 2006 and 2017 and will remain chairman of the board with Wiity as a senior advisor.
UnitedHealth was hit hard last year when the previous CEO Brian Thompson was killed in New York. Since then shares of the healthcare giant have tumbled.
Hemsley said he is confident that the issues the company is facing are within their “capacity to resolve” while on a conference call.
“I’m deeply disappointed in and apologise for the performance setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal challenges,” he said.
“Many of the issues standing in the way of achieving our goals as well as our opportunities are largely within our control.”
While under Witty’s leadership in 2021 the company thrived with surging revenues and skyrocketing shares, the health insurer is now facing several setbacks.
UnitedHealth's most notable setback is the ongoing trial of Luigi Mangione, who was indicted last month on a federal murder charge for Thompson's killing.
The case has garnered plenty of online attention and raised concerns for U.S. health insurer security.
UnitedHealth also cut its 2025 forecast following its first quarterly earnings miss in more than a decade.
The company’s shares have also plummeted 38% since Thompson’s death on 4 December 2024 and fell more than 16% on Tuesday to levels last seen almost five years ago.
Other large American insurers like Elevance, Humana and Cigna have also tumbled by 4% and 7%.
At the time of writing UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) shares are trading at US$311.38, down 17.79% from the previous close. The company’s market cap is $282.47 billion.
