Former UnitedHealthcare Employee Who Says She Worked For Brian Thompson For 10 Years Shares The 5 'Wildest' Things She Witnessed On The Job
Her allegations are consistent with those made by other former employees.
Viktor Gladkov | Shutterstock The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has shocked the country, and so has much of the public's response. Many in media, business, and government, as well as some rank-and-file people on social media, have expressed dismay at the lack of empathy shown toward Thompson and the family he left behind.
However, one former UnitedHealthcare employee, who says she worked for Thompson for 10 years, says the company he once ran is far more toxic and predatory than anyone realizes. It paints a picture that makes it easy to understand why recent events have inspired so much anger
The former UnitedHealthcare employee shared 5 disturbing things she witnessed while working there:
The ostensibly boundless rage at the health insurance industry and the class solidarity it seems to have inspired since Thompson's death reveal two things about America, depending on your particular biases: Either our society is deeply sick, or our healthcare system is.
TikToker Morgan Cierra sits firmly in the latter camp. For her, it's based on far more than the usual infuriating experiences nearly all of us have had as customers of insurance corporations.
"I worked for Brian Thompson in the Medicare department at United Healthcare for almost 10 years," she said in a recent TikTok. "I have compiled a list of just the top five wildest things that I experienced while working there — things they do not want y'all to know about."
It's important to note that her claims have not been substantiated or confirmed. They are; however, consistent with the thrust of allegations leveled online by others who say they have worked for the company, as well as medical providers who have shared their experiences.
1. UnitedHealthcare provided no protection when a fired employee murdered two people.
"They terminated a guy on my team," Cierra said. "The next morning, he snapped and [murdered] two news anchors on air."
Cierra speaks of an infamous case in which shooter Vester Lee Flanagan shot two former news colleagues, Alison Parker, and Adam Ward, at WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia. His tenure at UnitedHealthcare has been confirmed by media reports of the case.
Cierra said that Flanagan was neutralized by law enforcement while en route back to the UnitedHealthcare office to "finish off" the staff there. "UnitedHealthcare did not increase security, police presence, offer us any resources," she added.
Instead, they held a meeting in which they forbade staff from speaking to the media under threat of "legal ramifications" and termination. "Kinda like they did with [Thompson]," she said, referencing how UnitedHealthcare continued holding the shareholder meeting Thompson was on his way to when he was murdered.
2. UnitedHealthcare did not take harassment or threats of violence against women seriously.
"They do not take women's safety seriously at all," Cierra said, adding that she was harassed by her trainer while working at UnitedHealthcare. "I reported it, and I began getting retaliated against like there was no tomorrow."
She said there were no repercussions for the trainer despite him having had a history of harassment complaints at previous jobs that resulted in termination. Instead, he was soon promoted.
Cierra continued, revealing that she was forced to continue serving, on multiple occasions, a customer who called the call center while drunk and asked for her specifically. She says he would "[describe] in great detail how he was going to [assault] me, how he knew where I was working."
She said she was later reprimanded for hanging up on him.
3. Drug use and dealing were rampant at the UnitedHealthcare office where she worked.
"The drug dealing was out of control," Cierra said. "My boss, my manager — the amount of people I walked in on."
She explained that the office was next door to a drug-dealing "trap" hotel, and employees were frequently subjected to dangerous criminal activity. "Did [management] call the police? Did they do anything about it?" she asked. "Absolutely not."
4. UnitedHealthcare employees were forbidden from trying to actually help customers.
"They did not want us helping or going above or beyond at all," Cierra said. "We were trained to answer only the question that was asked and nothing more."
She said that many of the calls she received were heart-wrenching conversations from people with direly serious illnesses who were terrified and devastated that they could not afford their treatments or medications.
In one case, a man's doctor was adamant that he needed an incredibly expensive name-brand medication because he would get a kickback from the manufacturer. "We ended up finding him an alternative; it was like $20," she said, but her UnitedHealthcare bosses were furious.
"The man sent me flowers to thank me. I got in so much trouble for this that I was taken off of all of my special projects," she said. "Because I went against my training and helped this man."
5. When she reported her boss for having relations with employees, UnitedHealthcare retaliated.
Cierra explained that she entered into a relationship with her manager during her time at UnitedHealthcare, and after they became involved, she found out he had relations with several other colleagues as well.
"When I finally went forward about that, they did not have my back at all," she said of the UnitedHealthcare management. "They had his completely. Cause he was the bossman, right?"
She added that she was soon retaliated against. "They started watching every little thing I did."
She went on to explain that these five items are just a small part of the scope of what she witnessed. "Don't even get me started on all the ways they would beat the regulations," she said.
The events of recent weeks have left her hopeful that more about the company and the insurance industry, in general, will be exposed. "I cannot wait till all the stories come out about this company," she said. "It is far more than just your run-of-the-mill insurance schemes."
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.