Insurance Providers Conceal Top-Level Officials' Identities in Response to UnitedHealthcare CEO's Homicide
The apparent elimination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Anderson, unexpectedly accompanied by widespread approval for the assassin and contempt towards the healthcare industry as a whole, has insurance corporations taking additional safety measures for their leadership teams. This includes erasing their names and images from company websites.
404 Media pointed out various companies who have deleted references to their executives, such as Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, which eliminated its leadership page that initially displayed CEO Kim Keck and 28 other executives. The website address for the leadership page now redirects solely to the company’s “About Us” page. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield encountered controversy recently over its decision to establish a limit on coverage duration for anesthesia during surgeries and medical procedures. This decision was subsequently retracted after backlash (although, as some would argue, the policy wouldn't have been as detrimental to patients as it appeared).
While Anthem BCBS became the primary focus of criticism, it wasn't the only company seeking to hide its leadership. Twitter user @GASLIGHTER_ spotted similar undertakings from nonprofit health insurance organization CareSource, which featured individual pages for its executives, including President and CEO Erhardt Preitauer. Attempting to access those pages now results in a 404 error.
Additional companies joining in this effort to suppress executives' mentions include Medica Healthcare, which took down its “Leaders” page that listed President and CEO Lisa Erickson alongside several senior-level executives. The page now redirects to the company's main website.
The extent of concealing leadership information for these corporations extends beyond just their company websites. On Wikipedia, an editor proposed deleting the entry for David Joyner, President and CEO of CVS Health. At the time of publication, Joyner's entry continued to be live on Wikipedia.
The push to erase the page was met with negative feedback from other editors. One editor remarked, "This is absurd reaction to the UHC CEO. Are you really that much of a sellout?' Another user countered, "The article should remain available for the sake of the community. Additionally, it seems a bit suspicious that you are proposing deletion at a time when CEOs are trying to remove their digital footprints. I truly do not believe you are acting in good faith."
Insurance companies' decision to attempt to delete mentions of their respective CEOs from the internet appears to be simply for show. Information on who manages these companies is still readily available throughout the internet—from company investor relations pages to LinkedIn to business intelligence platforms like ZoomInfo. Unless the intent is to eventually have these companies run by unidentified individuals dressed in black robes with concealed faces, surrounded by security 24/7, removing "about us" pages appears to be an ineffective security strategy.
The increase in tech-savvy individuals in the future may pose a challenge to these companies, as they might find ways to uncover hidden information. The tech industry is continually innovating, and new tools could potentially expose these executive details, rendering the current measures obsolete.
Moreover, the future of the tech industry could see the development of programs that mimic human behavior to navigate company websites and retrieve information, potentially uncovering deleted executive pages.
