The nation’s largest health insurance company based in the Twin Cities remains on high alert three months after the killing of its chief executive officer, Brian Thompson.

Thompson was shot and killed in early December outside of a New York City hotel in what police described as a “brazen, targeted attack” on the 50-year-old from Minnesota.

In the days immediately following the shooting, a Minnetonka police officer arrived at the sprawling campus of UnitedHealthcare before the sun came up, according to records obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES.

Those records reveal an officer has been stationed at the entrance of the main building nearly every day for the last three months.

To date, UnitedHealthcare has paid the City of Minnetonka almost $150,000 for police to work contracted overtime. A city spokesperson confirmed the company is being charged the standard off-duty rate of $110 per hour. 

The police presence offers a window into the extraordinary lengths UnitedHealthcare is taking to protect its employees from threats following Thompson’s killing.

“When you’re looking for some immediate assistance, [the police are] going to be your first call,” said Dave Skinner, who runs NTS Security in Minneapolis. 

Skinner does not work with UnitedHealthcare but says inquiries started coming into his office right after the shooting.

“When the murder of Brian Thompson happened, guys like myself within the industry started receiving phone calls from these companies looking for protective services,” he said. “Everybody that I know in the industry was immediately working and scrambling to get people in place.”

Temporary solutions

That brazen shooting in New York City captivated the nation and also put a spotlight on the business practices of the county’s largest insurer.

The accused murderer, Luigi Mangione, became something of a folk hero. Protestors have even shown up in his support at a recent court hearing in New York City.

The case is raising the stakes here in Minnesota. Employees are reminded of the tragedy every day when they arrive at the headquarters building in Minnetonka. The off-duty police officer sits near a newly erected guard shack off the main entrance.

“It’s typically not a permanent solution,” Skinner said of the overtime patrols. “It’s typically temporary until they can take a good look at their security program and they can increase their security measures on the physical and operational levels.”

Skinner said the patrols mainly act as a deterrent and help staff feel safe. They can also lead to faster responses.

In fact, police records obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES show the day after Thompson’s killing, UnitedHealthcare security called Minnetonka Police about a threat against another executive.

The security team found a comment on the executive’s LinkedIn page from a user identified only as “Second Hand” who wrote, simply, “You’re next.”

”You really have to take a hard look at those threats because that’s what that was, that was a threat. Is it a credible threat? Who made the threat? And it’s very easy to track that down with the tools that law enforcement has,” Skinner said.

No charges were ever filed related to the LinkedIn threat, but the screenshots are now saved as evidence.

Extra precautions

The new normal at UnitedHealthcare is still evolving three months after Thompson’s killing.

The most obvious signs are new fencing, third-party security, and police. Less obvious is what the public can no longer see: the company used to have bios for its entire leadership team posted online.

The page is no longer active.

Skinner says he’s seeing large corporations follow that trend – scrubbing bios and social media pages as an extra precaution.

“It’s a really good time, in very unfortunate circumstances, but a really good time for all of them to take a look at their physical and operational security measures to make sure that they are sufficient, they are protected,” he said.