Stephen Hemsley, the former CEO of UnitedHealth Group and its current board chair, also owns an investment firm that manages his own portfolio of UnitedHealth stock and oversees other wealthy individuals’ accounts that have held shares of companies that have direct business with or indirect ties to United.
It’s an unusual arrangement for someone in such a prominent role at one of the largest health care corporations in the world, according to several experts in securities and corporate law interviewed by STAT, and one that they said highlights shortcomings in government disclosure requirements and raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
The arrangement is perfectly legal. But while other board chairs at large publicly traded health care companies, like Thomas Frist III at HCA Healthcare, hold high-ranking titles in the investment world, none were longtime chief executives of the same company they chair, like Hemsley. UnitedHealth also does not disclose Hemsley’s investment firm ownership to its shareholders in regular disclosures.
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