UnitedHealth's Witty, Cigna's Cordani top insurance CEO pay ranking

Health insurance CEO pay rose in 2024 despite disappointing financial performances by several leading companies.

Total compensation increased for the chief executives of UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Centene and Molina Healthcare while it declined for the CEOs of CVS Health, Elevance Health and Humana, according to proxy statements the companies submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Related: What for-profit systems' top execs earned in 2024

Across those seven publicly trade, for-profit companies, average compensation ticked up 1% to $20.9 million compared with 2023. Total compensation includes base salary, bonuses, stock awards and incentive-based pay.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty led the pack with $26.3 million in compensation and enjoyed the greatest annual increase at 11.9%. An increase in stock and option awards propelled Witty’s higher earnings.

The UnitedHealthcare parent company downgraded its profit outlook for 2025 after experiencing higher-than-anticipated Medicare Advantage costs and missing its earnings target, it announced Thursday.

Cigna President, CEO and Chair David Cordani and Centene CEO Sarah London saw double-digit percentage increases in their total pay to $23.3 million and $20.6 million, respectively.

Aetna parent company CVS Health reduced CEO compensation by 17.6% to $17.8 million, the largest decrease among these companies. David Joyner succeeded Karen Lynch as president and CEO in October.

Aetna struggled to control medical expenses in 2024 and is engaged in a $2 billion cost-cutting plan that includes closing more retail stores, implementing new artificial intelligence technology and scaling back its Medicare Advantage operations.

Elevance Health President and CEO Gail Boudreaux earned $20.5 million, which amounts to 370 times the average compensation for her employees, the largest ratio among these chief executives. Humana paid President and CEO Jim Rechtin $15.6 million, or 195 times as much as the average Humana worker. Rechtin replaced Bruce Broussard in July.

Elevance Health, Humana, UnitedHealth Group and Centene all laid off or bought out workers last year as health insurance employment contracted for the first time in 15 years.

Witty stock deals

The UnitedHealth Group proxy statement includes a disclosure that Witty received more than 11,000 in additional shares and 41,700 more stock options on Feb. 21, 2024, the same day the company revealed that its Change Healthcare unit had been the victim of a ransomware attack that ultimately cost the company an estimated $2.6 billion.

In December, the California Public Employees Retirement System and other plaintiffs sued UnitedHealth Group, Witty, Chair Stephen Hemsley and late UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, alleging the executives traded company shares using nonpublic information.

In the proxy statement, UnitedHealth Group avows that stock grants are executed at prearranged times.

“The compensation and human resources committee does not take material nonpublic information into account when determining the timing and terms of such awards, and has not timed the disclosure of material nonpublic information for purposes of affecting the value of executive compensation,” the UnitedHealth Group filing says.

According to the company, Witty asked the board of directors to reduce his annual incentive cash payment after the Change Healthcare breach. UnitedHealth awarded Witty $1.5 million in cash, half of his target. UnitedHealth Group did not respond to an interview request.

Lauren Berryman contributed to this story.