Dive Brief:
- UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the US, has made plans to restructure its top management structure after a key executive responsible for core health plan operations—including the company's public exchanges under the ACA—left the company. Chief financial officer David Wichmann will assume the title of president. The company will create a new "Office of the Chief Executive."
- As CEO of UHG's UnitedHealthcare division and EVP of UnitedHealth, departing Gail Boudreaux oversaw $113.8 billion in annual revenue. Sales at UnitedHealthcare rose 10% last year. Observers thought she was likely to take over for CEO Stephen Hemsley eventually.
- Before her time with UHG, Boudreaux ran Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois for several years.
Dive Insight:
So UHG has been shaken up, though from the outside there's no clear logic as to why it was necessary to move so many execs around in the wake of Boudreaux's departure. Perhaps it's because Boudreaux was central to the critically-important process of rolling out the company's major expansion of its ACA offerings for next year. Putting these executives in new roles may be an attempt to take a fresh look at how to get this done, or it could just be damage control.
That being said, nobody's talking about the reasons why a top executive with a history of success would leave before claiming the CEO's chair. There may have been unseen tensions, however, as happy departures are rarely "effective immediateIy." What's more, senior leaders like Boudreaux, who at 54 is well under retirement age, don't usually leave a top post without making other plans first. We'll probably find out what her grievances were at some point.