In his first public comments since one of his executives was fatally shot, the head of UnitedHealth Group … [+]
In his first public comments since one of his executives was fatally shot, UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive Andrew Witty said Thursday that the U.S. health care system “needs to work better” and that his company’s mission was to “help people live healthier lives”.
On a day when UnitedHealth reported $14 billion in 2024 net revenue, Witty spoke of the need for the health care system to be “less confusing, less complex and less expensive.”
UnitedHealth and Witty have been dealing with fallout since the Dec. 4 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which sparked a flood of scrutiny over denials of medical care by health insurers and some other business practices by social media trolls and industry critics, including some in Congress. who wish to see reforms.
The company, along with most other rival health insurers, has remained dark with few, if any, press releases as companies including UnitedHealth have removed executive photos, biographies and other information from websites.
But Witty, who was Thompson’s boss, told analysts and investors on the company’s earnings call Thursday morning that “the task before us” including health care providers, insurers, employers, drug companies and policymakers “is to continue improve quality and health outcomes for individuals and families while reducing costs for all.”
“We need to build on the unique fundamental strengths of America’s health care and address the areas where we can make it work better,” Witty said.
“The mission of this company – why we exist – is to improve this system for everyone and help people live healthier lives,” he added. “That means getting more people into high-quality, value-based care and keeping them healthy in the first place, so that fewer Americans find themselves with a chronic disease and in many cases – preventable. It means continuing to invest in programs like Medicare Advantage, which, by providing coordinated care for seniors, has been proven to deliver better health outcomes at lower costs to consumers and taxpayers than fee-for-service Medicare .
Thompson was among several executives who led UnitedHealth Group businesses with the title of CEO. UnitedHealth includes the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare that included Thompson as well as Optum and its multiple businesses including OptumRx, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.
“You knew how much he meant to all of us and how dedicated he was to helping make the health care system work better for all the people we are privileged to serve,” Witty said of Thompson. “He would dive with passion and care into finding solutions to improve experiences whether for an individual consumer, employer or public agency. Right now, there are 400,000 nurses, doctors, case workers, customer service specialists, pharmacists, technologists and many others in this organization who share that commitment and are determined to move that work forward.”
In his comments, Witty also took aim at the pharmaceutical industry given the rising price of prescription drugs and his company’s role in trying to keep costs under control, especially as more people take expensive drugs like prescription obesity injections GLP-1. it can cost more than $2,000 a month without coverage.
“Pharmacy benefit managers play a vital role in keeping these prices down — which is why drug companies and their allies have spent the last several years attacking them,” said Witty, who led the major drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline for nearly a decade before joining UnitedHealth Group management. team to run Optum before rising to CEO of UnitedHealth. “OptumRx alone delivers many tens of billions of dollars in annual savings versus manufacturer pricing – including GLP-1. This significantly reduces the gap with other countries, but even then, prices in the US are still multiples of what the rest of the world pays for the same drugs.”
Witty said United’s PBM OptumRx is making changes to benefit its employers and government customers.
“Last year, our PBM passed through more than 98% of the rebates we negotiate with drug companies for customers. While we offer customers 100% pass-through options, a small number have historically chosen other models,” added Witty. “We are committed to fully phase out those remaining deals so that 100% of rebates go to customers by 2028 at the latest.”
“We will continue to encourage all of our customers to fully pass these savings directly to patients at the point of sale, as we already do for all of the people we serve in our fully insured employer offerings,” Witty said. “This will help make it more transparent who is responsible for drug prices in this country: the drug companies themselves.”
