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Shares in UnitedHealth Group fell nearly 8 per cent in premarket trading on Tuesday after the health insurance giant suspended its annual outlook and named a new chief executive.
Executive chair Stephen Hemsley, who served as chief executive until 2017, will replace Andrew Witty, the company said. Witty, the former head of UK pharma group GSK who was named CEO in 2021, decided to step down for “personal reasons”.
The company said it had revised its outlook for 2024 partly because of the costs associated with new beneficiaries of its Medicare Advantage plans, private versions of the US health programme for seniors. It said these costs “remained higher than expected”.
UnitedHealth is still grappling with the aftermath of the killing last year of senior executive Brian Thompson. Thompson had served as chief executive of the Minnesota-based group’s UnitedHealthcare insurance division.
