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UnitedHealth, one of the nation’s largest health care companies, was in sharp focus in 2024. Early in the year, UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare, a technology company that handles orders and patient payments, reported a nationwide cyberattack that crippled U.S. pharmacies for weeks and left hospitals and providers scrambling to get paid.
Later in the year, UnitedHealth was an unprecedented top news story, after its UnitedHealthcare insurance division CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in New York City in a targeted attack by a lone gunman who targeted the CEO over apparent frustrations over the health care industry. The shooting uncovered a deep anger within Americans who felt the health care industry too often
failed to cover large medical bills and stood in the way of necessary care.
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Drug prices also took center stage in 2024, as the Medicare drug price negotiations, the first-ever federal government price negotiation with top drugmakers, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis, got underway. Ozempic and Wegovy, the new GLP-1 weight loss drugs, were the particular focus of Senator Bernie Sanders, who launched a probe of the “outrageous” prices of these drugs, upping the pressure on Novo Nordisk to lower costs.
While 2023 might have been a hybrid schedule for most workforces, 2024 seemed to focus on a return to the office, at least for some big employers, like Amazon, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
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Lynn Cavanaugh
Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh is Senior Editor, Retirement at BenefitsPRO. Prior, she was editor-in-chief of the What's New in Benefits & Compensation newsletter. She has worked for major firms in the employee benefits space, Vanguard and Willis Towers Watson, as well as top media companies, including Condé Nast and American Media.
