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Welcome back to Communication Breakdown, a weekly podcast from the Observatory on Corporate

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Reputation.

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Thanks for joining us.

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I'm Steve Dowling in Silicon Valley.

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And I'm Craig Carroll in New York City.

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Each week Steve and I take a look at strategies companies are using to shape headlines and

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sometimes save their skins.

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It's a post game show for PR Pros.

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This week United Health performs a CEO Transplant and the Wall Street Journal calls this post-op

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complications.

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The country's largest and most profitable health insurance company announcing Tuesday morning

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that Chief Executive Andrew Witty had resigned for what the company described only as

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personal reasons. An abrupt departure, but not an especially surprising one given recent

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struggles.

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Last month United Health missed both revenue and earnings expectations for the first time

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in 17 years and revised its guidance downward.

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Seems a spike in demand for care, especially Medicare services, meaning older patients,

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caught the company flat-footed.

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On Tuesday as they announced Witty's departure, they also suspended financial guidance altogether

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for the year.

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It's just the latest shock in a tumultuous 12 months for United Health employees and investors,

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including news of government investigations, a massive cyber attack that disrupted health

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care services, and of course the brazen, broad daylight murder of the company's top insurance

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executive, Brian Thompson, in New York City last December.

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Whitty himself has received death threats and at least one analyst speculated that fear

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for his family safety might be one of the "personal reasons" the company cited in his departure.

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But most observers point to business challenges, especially the April earnings miss.

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United Health's new boss is a familiar face, Board Chair Steve Helmsley, who was CEO once

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before from 2006 till 2017.

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Following the paper announcement on Tuesday, Helmsley held a 20 minute call with analysts

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and investors.

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"To all stakeholders, including employees and shareholders, I'm deeply disappointed in

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and apologize for the performance setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal

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challenges.

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Many of the issues standing in the way of achieving our goals as well as our opportunities are largely

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within our control."

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Apparently outside the company's control- a scoop by the Wall Street Journal, breaking

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one day after Helmsley's return that the Justice Department has been investigating United

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Health Care for possible criminal Medicare fraud.

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The company called the journal's reporting "deeply responsible" and said it hasn't

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been notified by the Department of Justice.

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Steve, executive departures are a fact of life and sometimes they get messy.

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How is United Health doing with this one?

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Well, I think the announcement itself was solid.

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It had all the elements of a good transition announcement and most importantly, it had

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answers to all the questions that Wall Street knew to care about on the day of the transition.

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They made clear who's in charge, Helmsley, who's in known quantity has a good track record.

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So clarity, continuity, confidence, we can make these all words that begin with C like we're

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buying a diamond.

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On those three, they did well.

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And again, that's what analysts and investors want to see.

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That and the return to profitability next year.

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There's two other areas though.

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I would call them candor and context.

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They're closely related.

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But I think it was a mixed bag even on the day of the announcement before we got this news

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of a possible criminal investigation.

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People were looking at that first line of the press release, 'stepping down for personal reasons.'

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And they noted that it's kind of vague.

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It is vague, probably intentionally vague.

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But that left reporters to write some reporters, not a lot, about what you didn't say.

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And that chips away at what you did say.

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So you kind of have to say what happened, not just what's next.

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And the first news cycle is so critical for tone setting.

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That's why companies play stories, they leak stories, they give out exclusives.

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But you really can't do that with a CEO departure, especially not at an abrupt one like this.

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If you leave people wondering, they might wait for another shoe to drop.

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And who knows if this DOJ investigation, the reported investigation, is related or not.

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But it's another shoe, maybe not from the same pair.

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And it's going to complicate Helmsley's return.

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Yeah.

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I love that: clarity, continuity, confidence. Sort of the investor relations trifecta.

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You're buying a diamond cut, clarity and control of that narrative.

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And you're right for that audience, this was a clean handoff.

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But on candor and context, I think you nailed it, right?

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The message is polished, but still hollow in places.

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Personal reasons is just PR shorthand for "please don't ask any more questions."

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And that works until someone does ask more questions.

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And that's exactly what happened.

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You leave out context and reporters start to reverse engineering the story.

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You build the vacuum and then blame the press when they try to fill it.

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The bigger risk here isn't just the DOJ storyline.

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It's that it starts to feel like there's always another shoe.

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(It) doesn't even have to match the first one.

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Just adds to the clutter noise Helmsley now has to cut through.

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You can't say personal reasons and expect professional silence.

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That phrase is just a blank check the media is going to cash.

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One of the things that company did not address this week is we're talking about what they

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said versus what they didn't say.

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But this one is surely going to be on Helmsley's to-do list at some point.

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And that's the reputational crisis that United Health is in.

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And I don't think crisis is too strong a word.

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And now this reported criminal investigation, if it's real, that's not going to help.

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Let's just rewind for a second.

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Of course, everybody remembers that Brian Thompson, who was in charge of United Health's insurance

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division, he was murdered in the broad daylight, as you said, on the streets of New York

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right before their analyst day in December.

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And just as shocking as the assassination, that's what it was, is how the public reacted.

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And the alleged shooter, Luigi Mangione, he instantly took on this kind of cult status,

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which I think is really hard to sort of wrap your head around.

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But it's reflective, I think, of this widespread frustration that Americans have with the

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for-profit health insurance companies.

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But let's look at how United Health dealt with that.

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Andrew Wittyy, who was Thompson's boss, he sent a video message we talked about on the

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podcast at the time.

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He sent this message to employees, which was then leaked to an independent journalist.

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And Whitty spoke in human terms about Thompson and the loss the company was feeling.

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But he also weirdly talked about United Health's role in the healthcare system.

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And he made some remarks that were seen as insensitive.

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"Our role is a critical role.

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And we make sure that care is safe, appropriate, and is delivered when people need it.

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And we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or for unnecessary care to

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be delivered in a way which makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable."

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So then a few days later, Witty writes an op-ed for the New York Times and it was not well

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received.

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People said he was deflecting responsibility for flaws in the healthcare system.

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He said no one would design a system like the one we have.

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But here's United Health spending millions of dollars every year lobbying on healthcare issues and

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they might profit mightily from the system that he's deriving as a patchwork.

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So Whitty says United Health is on a mission to deliver high quality care and lower costs.

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The whole thing really fell flat.

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So I think there was this moment after Thompson's death where they might have made some progress

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on softening their image.

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And I think that's one of the reasons why Witty wrote the op-ed to begin with because he

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said they were struggling to understand the public's reaction.

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But instead, at least from my point of view, there's really been a change in tone in their

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public statements since December.

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And they're... United Health is much more defensive, much more often.

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If you look at their newsroom website, they've got all these statements their refuting,

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individual stories in the Wall Street Journal or on social media.

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It's almost combative.

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They don't provide a lot of context.

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They come off as angry.

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I really don't see it as being very effective.

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It's this siege mentality.

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It's not a good look.

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And if they had any opportunity to sort of find some goodwill in the wake of Thompson's

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death, it seems like they have squandered it.

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Yeah.

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I think that moment really crystallized Whitty's reputational struggle.

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He tried to dress something that was human, horrifying and symbolic.

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And he didn't quite land it.

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That video message, which could have been a turning point, ended up being remembered for

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what he missed.

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Yeah.

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He spoke about loss, but then he pivoted into the system's language about appropriate care

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and sustainability.

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And it just didn't connect.

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And I think in that moment, people didn't want to hear about policy pressure.

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They wanted to see emotional leadership.

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And when they didn't get it, that's when the reaction hardened, right?

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The company came off as cold, detattached and even defensive.

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And I think that was the reputational break point, not because Whitty did something outrageous,

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but because he failed to meet the moment.

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And in reputational terms, that's just as damaging.

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Yeah.

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It feels like a huge mess because they had this chance to find a new voice.

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And I think it's sort of cynical calculation, but if there was any sympathy from the public

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to be had, if there was any way to humanize the company that people really had a, I think,

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poor impression of, they didn't do it.

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And now, like it feels like a pendulum has swung way to the wrong side because they're

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taking this very, like I said, it seems angry,

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oppositional stance to the press.

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And if you respond to every outrage and you crank up the indignation to 11 every time, people

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are going to start dismissing those reactions.

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You can't go out every time the Journal breaks a story and say they're reporting misinformation.

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That's outrageous and false.

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This one was deeply irresponsible.

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It's not the way you win in the long run.

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And I think more important, they're not creating any forward motion.

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They aren't countering that narrative.

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It is, I think, generally unchallenged.

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And that's why I think they're in the spot they're in and they're going to have to deal

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with it.

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Yeah.

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You know, what you're describing is like a classic siege spiral where the company stops

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speaking to the public and start speaking against everyone else.

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And the problem is, once you adopt that posture, everything sounds like deflection, even

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if some of it's true.

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So the reacting to outrage with outrage, but reputationally, that's a losing game.

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You know, you might win the headline battle for a day, but you're losing the story of war

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over time.

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And more importantly, you're losing the room.

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And you know, you're right, tone fatigue-

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It's real.

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Every response is deeply responsible, outrageous and false or grossly misleading, eventually

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bleeds an into noise and you can't crank the outrage down 11 every time and expect people to

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still hear you.

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Yeah.

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I think that there is, and maybe this is symptomatic of the problems they're going through internally.

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Maybe it's more isolated.

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Who knows how closely it was related to what he's leadership?

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We may never know.

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But they have a moment now with a new CEO who understands the company clearly, brings

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a lot of credibility.

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I thought it was good that on Tuesday, he issued this apology to employees and to shareholders.

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The reputational issue is really with the customers.

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They've got 50 million people there providing health insurance coverage to and millions and

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millions and millions more who are looking at this very profitable company in a very unpopular

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industry.

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And there is, as I said, this narrative that's basically unchallenged that people are being

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denied coverage left and right.

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And I think somehow United Health has got to try a reset, take a more sympathetic approach,

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ideally with more transparency because I think that is a big part of their problem.

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Yeah.

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And here's the bigger issue.

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You know, they're not replacing the narrative.

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There's no forward motion, no counterweight to the noise, just rebuttals and rebuttals

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doesn't build reputation, signals do, strategy does, meeting stakeholder expectations does,

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story does.

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And that's, I think, what Helmsley's got to do fast.

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You don't calm the chaos by yelling back.

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You calm it by changing the tone and anchoring in transparency and action.

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But the thing I'd say is, you know, I want to make clear, this isn't crisis to me, right?

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To me, this is chaos, just another example of chaos.

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Crisis as a beginning, a peak and a resolution, but chaos is a little bit more ambient.

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It's sustained.

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And I think that's what United Health is in right now.

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They're not just dealing with a single breaking point.

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They're caught in a swirl.

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Leadership turnover, the DOJ scrutiny, cyber tax, public outrage, denial rate headlines, and

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the emotional shockwave of a murder.

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And that's not a comms event.

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That's a communications environment.

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And you just can't manage chaos with a crisis playbook.

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You need a new mindset, a new tone, and a new system for making meaning of this.

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Yeah, I think though you need some place to start.

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And that denial rate issue has been one that is really, I think, been both nagging at

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them.

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And every time it comes up, it undermines their efforts to be more credible, more trustworthy

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in general.

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So this is what happened in the wake of Thompson's murder, about two months later.

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end of January, there's this third party study that comes out that says United Health

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denies 32% of claims, which would be twice the industry average.

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And there was, there were a lot of problems with that report.

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It only looked at certain kinds of care for certain groups.

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I think maybe only in a couple of states.

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And of course, United Health, they went ballistic, and it was reported by the mainstream press.

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They called it 'grossly misleading' to extrapolate that narrow figure.

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So United Health says that overall their denial rate is more like 2%.

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But as flawed as that initial report was, they haven't been able to shake that 32% number.

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And if not the number itself, just this idea that the problem is way more widespread than

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what they're claiming.

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It's a situation that confirms people's worst fears.

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And the profitability just gets people even more furious when they hear about people being

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denied care.

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So it kind of reminds me of this episode last year that we've talked about when McDonald's

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was having trouble shaking this story about an $18 big Mac or whatever the price was.

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And it was like one store in Connecticut.

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It went viral.

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But ultimately, they couldn't because people felt that prices were rising, which they

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were, but they were feeling in their pocketbooks, and they saw prices going up, and it just

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sort of snowballed, and it became this conventional wisdom.

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And I think, while much more consequential for a company like United Health, this situation

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similar.

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And what did McDonald's do?

257
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They eventually broke their own rules

258
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and they started publishing pricing data, which they had never done before.

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The transparency was the key.

260
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And I wonder if there is something similar for United Health and other health insurance

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companies to do to give people more confidence in their numbers.

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I don't know if 2% is any more accurate than any other number out there.

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But United Health is having trouble breaking through with that number.

264
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And they've got to try something to emphasize transparency if they want to be more credible

265
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on that topic.

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I think part of it is United Health is dealing with almost the reputational equivalent of a

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fixed narrative.

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The 32%, accurate or not, felt true to people

269
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and it confirmed what they already suspected that profits came before patients.

270
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And what's the number becomes a symbol?

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The facts are just going to have a hard time catching up.

272
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:48,200
So United Health responded with that 2% number, but they didn't bring receipts.

273
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And without real verifiable data, segment by segment, plan by plan, it just sounds like spin.

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And in an emotionally loaded environment like this, the more confident you sound, the less

275
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credible you seem.

276
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I think they don't even sound confident in it.

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I think that more success breaking through with that number, if they weren't just leading

278
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:15,240
with how angry they are at the Wall Street Journal or whatever the source is every time

279
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something comes up.

280
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I think this is what gets to what I was saying earlier is if you're just angry and you're

281
00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:25,600
perceived as railing against. You're calling the Wall Street Journal biased.

282
00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:27,960
That's a pretty strong statement.

283
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:33,620
You may feel that your executives may feel that, but it's a big difference between being

284
00:17:33,620 --> 00:17:37,760
frustrated and going out and making an accusation like that.

285
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:42,480
You need to maintain your own credibility if you want that information to be taken seriously.

286
00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:46,160
And you also need to be presenting it in a much more rational way.

287
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:47,160
Absolutely.

288
00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:52,040
I like your comparison to the $18 Big Mac story.

289
00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:56,720
I think that's a perfect example because once the public locks in on a number, you don't

290
00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,080
fix it with outrage, you fix it with transparency.

291
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:00,600
Show your work.

292
00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:05,120
Break down the real data or better yet, invite someone else to.

293
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:08,960
They're fighting data perception with press statements and that's not a fair fight and

294
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:10,840
it's not one they're winning.

295
00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:14,040
And when the narrative feels true, people don't need it to be accurate.

296
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They just need it to be believable.

297
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,560
In moments like this, transparency isn't a strategy.

298
00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:21,800
It's the cost of staying in the conversation.

299
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:25,160
Well, and let's look at it as an opportunity because that's what I see here.

300
00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:32,360
There is no agreed upon industry metric or way to get to the denial rate that is going

301
00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:37,600
to be comparable to other companies, to your own history, whatever.

302
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:40,960
And here's United Health Care, United Health Group.

303
00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,160
They are the biggest, the most profitable.

304
00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,200
They're the leaders in this industry.

305
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:52,080
They have the opportunity to at least try to lay out a metric that other companies could

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00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:58,080
get behind or even if other companies won't do it, that can be consistent over time and

307
00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:05,720
will add credibility to their assertion that they're only at 2% and not at 32%.

308
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:07,840
That's the opportunity hiding in all this, right?

309
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,040
There's no agreed upon industry standard for denial rates, right?

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00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:15,680
The data is fragmented, the definitions are all over the place and everybody's been able

311
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:17,720
to hide behind that fog.

312
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,560
But United Health is the biggest and they're the most profitable.

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Whether they like it or not, they're the benchmark and

314
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,800
that means they're in a position to lead here to set a standard that the rest of the industry

315
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:30,000
can follow.

316
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:35,600
They could be the first to say, "here's how we define a denial.

317
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,160
Here's the rate across product lines.

318
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:39,600
Here's what's eligible.

319
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Here's what's not.

320
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:43,480
And here's how we'll report it consistently."

321
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And that's not damage control.

322
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That's a agenda setting.

323
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:51,280
If you're the biggest, you don't just inherit the blame, you inherit the responsibility to

324
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:52,480
lead.

325
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:58,880
Right now, they could turn a reputational liability into an industry standard, but only if

326
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,160
they stop defending and start defining.

327
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:02,480
They don't need better rebuttals.

328
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,800
They need a baseline that the whole industry can see and use.

329
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:06,800
Yeah.

330
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,880
It brings me back again to this tone that they're taking on their newsroom and all

331
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:12,320
their interactions with the press.

332
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:13,320
Yeah.

333
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:19,380
I think if they can make an adjustment there, and also, this is a huge opportunity for the

334
00:20:19,380 --> 00:20:22,800
returning CEO, and I'm sure it is not lost on him.

335
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,480
He's going to have an opportunity to talk about these issues a lot more than Witty did.

336
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:32,240
I actually, I was surprised and I will not be surprised if someone tells me that I've

337
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:37,880
missed something, but I didn't see a single public appearance by Witty in the first five,

338
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:38,880
six months of this year.

339
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,160
There were no industry conferences.

340
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:46,920
There were no analysts days. And maybe I'm missing something, but they kind of went quite.

341
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:49,680
And listen, maybe this was a security concern.

342
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:55,920
Again, you mentioned chaos and all the different... we didn't even talk about the scrutiny that

343
00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,440
they've been under from Congress on cyber security.

344
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:01,680
So yes, there's been a siege mentality.

345
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,200
I would call it, you're calling it an environment that's chaotic.

346
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,840
I think both are true, but thier going to have to break out by talking.

347
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:13,840
They're going to have to break out by showing that they are willing to stand up to scrutiny

348
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,600
and telling their story themselves, which is something that Whitty started doing with

349
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:23,240
the fall start, I think, in December, and then I don't think they ever really got back

350
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:28,640
to it instead for whatever reason they have swung to this really defensive posture.

351
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,120
And if that was not their intention, they're really missing the mark, but they're looking

352
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:38,320
for a voice and they haven't found it. But they've got to start taking a different approach

353
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:44,120
to this and the arrival of a new CEO is as good a moment as any to do that.

354
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:48,080
Yeah, Helnsley is not just walking into a leadership role.

355
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,520
He's stepping into a reputational deficit.

356
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:52,840
The ledger isn't neutral.

357
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:59,840
It's in the red publicly, emotionally, symbolically, but here's the nuance, because he's returning

358
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:00,840
CEO.

359
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,000
He's not a stranger and that gives him credibility, but

360
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,680
it also gives him some package.

361
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,840
The question becomes, is he here to stabilize or is he here to reset?

362
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:16,920
And honestly, Steve, for me, this is where the narrative becomes mission critical.

363
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,360
If this is just a return of the past, he's missed the moment.

364
00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:26,320
But if he can frame this as a return with renewed purpose, now we're talking about a second

365
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,400
act, not a sequel.

366
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:30,160
The public doesn't need nostalgia.

367
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:32,080
They need new meaning.

368
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:38,320
They need someone to start with humility, honesty, clear signals of change, even if the

369
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:39,680
face is familiar.

370
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,120
So he's not just returning to the company.

371
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:46,840
He's returning into a story that's lost its plot and his first job is he's got to rewrite

372
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:47,840
it.

373
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:49,080
Yeah, you said stability or reset.

374
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:50,080
I think it's both.

375
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,080
I think that is the way you get the stability is by resetting.

376
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:58,840
And I've got to make a clear break, not necessarily with the previous executive, but they

377
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,960
need to take a new approach to how they're communicating with the outside world.

378
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:09,200
And I mean, consumers first, through the press, investors, maybe, I think they did everything

379
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,600
that the investors could want in this announcement.

380
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:18,560
But addressing the business uncertainties, just as Helmsley said in that quote we played

381
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:23,200
earlier, if the issues standing in their way are within their control, then they just

382
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,880
start to demonstrate that they're in control of them

383
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,400
and making the changes that they need to and communicating about those changes proactively

384
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:35,880
in a way that doesn't feel defensive or angry at the press for questioning them or whatever.

385
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:37,920
Accept that scrutiny.

386
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,200
The press set the rules and we have to play by them.

387
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:49,320
Do that and use all the information, knowledge, reputation, the credibility that he brings

388
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:55,440
as he returns to the CEO role, apply those and show that they're on a new path.

389
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,280
Yeah, his job is not just returning to the company.

390
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,200
He's returning to a story that's lost its plot.

391
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,760
His first job is got to be to rewrite the story.

392
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:09,120
When trust is this low, even a familiar face has got to re-earn its legitimacy.

393
00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:11,960
This isn't about memory, it's about momentum.

394
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,560
And the narrative reset that we're talking about here, it's not cosmetic.

395
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,120
It's existential because people don't want a new chapter;

396
00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:21,320
They want to know it's not the same book.

397
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:22,320
Yeah.

398
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,400
What's the size with them on this DOJ factor?

399
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:29,080
The Wall Street Journal reports that there's a criminal investigation underway.

400
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,120
The company says they haven't been contacted about it.

401
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:35,480
They say it's irresponsible to go out and report that, which I don't think is necessarily

402
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,520
true and I certainly don't think it's something that you call out.

403
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:43,440
But again, I sympathize with them because it's a rough situation to be in where someone

404
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:49,960
is saying there's an investigation and you cannot comment on what might be under investigation

405
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,200
for the most important reason is that if there isn't investigation and even if there isn't,

406
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,280
you might make it worse for yourself.

407
00:24:56,280 --> 00:25:00,320
But they are in a real spot here. as we've been saying for the past many minutes.

408
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:06,640
And I think that they should really look at ways that they can continue or reset their

409
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:12,640
communication without being constrained too much out of fear of what they might be getting

410
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,560
into with the DOJ or what the DOJ might be looking at.

411
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,560
You've got an army of lawyers, I'm sure, who are going to help them set some guardrails.

412
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:27,720
But I just think that going silent is really not an appealing proposition

413
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:33,120
Yeah, Steve, I think what we're saying here is it's like six months of sustained narrative

414
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,600
damage and most of it is self-inflicted.

415
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:42,360
This isn't one crisis.

416
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:48,400
It's a pattern, defensive tone and consistent messaging, over reliance on legalese and

417
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:52,800
It's a pattern, defensive tone and consistent messaging, over reliance on legalese and

418
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,160
under delivery on empathy.

419
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:57,840
You listed all those rebuttal statements, five or six, I think maybe more, accusing the

420
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:04,440
media bias, misinformation, being deeply irresponsible.

421
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,600
That might feel good in a legal war room, but reputationally, I think it just makes you

422
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:11,280
look combative and evasive.

423
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:15,760
It's like they're fighting every fire with gasoline and a press release.

424
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:19,320
When you layer that on a top of like a 50% stock drop, a leadership vacuum and increasing

425
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,080
regulatory scrutiny, it's not just a business problem, it's a trust problem.

426
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:26,640
And I think that's the job that Helmsely is inheriting.

427
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:31,960
It's not just stabilizing operations, but it's stabilizing meaning.

428
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:36,800
He's got to shift the tone from defensive to accountable and from opaque to transparent.

429
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,600
Because even at this point, even if the company technically is right on some of their denial

430
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,880
rate claims, the tone, the posture, and I think the inconsistency in past messaging, it's

431
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:47,960
all going to cost them something deeper than credibility.

432
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:53,280
It's going to cost them the benefit of the doubt

433
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:59,120
Yeah, I think just as we head towards the end of the show here are some final thoughts

434
00:26:59,120 --> 00:27:01,680
Yeah, I think just as we head towards the end of the show here are some final thoughts

435
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,880
I think if I were in their situation, I would be looking for places that I can move the

436
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:09,240
ball forward on our reputation. Find areas where you can be more transparent. Lose this

437
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:10,240
defensive tone, no matter what.

438
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:16,040
And try to leverage that leadership position into more agenda setting and see if you can

439
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:23,880
chart a path out of this credibility deficit starting with,

440
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,160
I wouldn't say it's the only thing, but starting with its denial rate issue because they could

441
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:33,520
find a way to define that rate or find an acceptable metric that people will, they may not love it,

442
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,720
but at least they could find something to build on there.

443
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:43,540
I think it could be a good step forward.

444
00:27:43,540 --> 00:27:52,280
It might feel like a concession to the company, but I think that's, you know, if you're under

445
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,760
this much scrutiny and criticism, you have to find a place to give.

446
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,520
And the most important, I think, from my point of view is they've got to be thinking about

447
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:03,280
their audience with the customer at the front.

448
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:08,600
I think that right now they're talking to investors and they're talking to regulators

449
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,520
and they may be talking to investigators, but their reputation fix is going to be ultimately

450
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:17,040
with the consumers and they've got to figure out how to reach them better.

451
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:22,120
You can't rebuild trust if you're still arguing over the fine print.

452
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:28,160
And right now the story isn't about healthcare,

453
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,240
it's about character and I think that's what Helmsly has got to fix first.

454
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:35,440
You know, leader can't just say, you know, we're back on track.

455
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,120
He's got to show that the trains changed.

456
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,680
Yeah.

457
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,360
And I think that a lot of the metrics, if you will, that are going to affect their reputation

458
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,240
with the public are maybe different than the metrics that are going to be satisfying

459
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:47,240
Wall Street and their other investors.

460
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:53,000
We've got a challenge on multiple fronts here.

461
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,600
Hopefully some constructive thoughts there for the insurance giant.

462
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:00,320
That's our show for this week.

463
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,880
We want to thank Shawn P Neal and the team at AdvoCast as well as the People Forward Network

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00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,560
for making our podcast possible.

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00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:08,640
If you enjoy the show, tell your friends in the comms world, hit us up on LinkedIn or drop

466
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:13,760
us a line by email.

467
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,240
We'd love to hear from you.

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Our address is podcast@ocrnetwork.com

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Communication Breakdown is a production of the Observatory on Corporate Reputation.

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I'm Steve Dowling.

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And I'm Craig Carroll.

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Thanks for listening.

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We'll be back next week.

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[MUSIC]

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#UnitedHealth #WallStreetJournal #McDonalds #NewYorkTimes #CEOTransition #HealthcareReputation #CrisisCommunications #NarrativeStrategy #MediaRelations #StakeholderTrust #CorporateAccountability #ShawnPNeal #AdvoCast #OCRNetwork

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