Name: John Rex
Previous title: Chief financial officer, UnitedHealth
New title: President and chief financial officer, UnitedHealth
CFO John Rex will be adding president to his list of titles at UnitedHealth, the healthcare behemoth said Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rex is succeeding Dirk McMahon, who is retiring effective April 1.
McMahon is also UnitedHealth’s chief operating officer, a role that UnitedHealth has yet to fill. A UnitedHealth spokesperson declined to comment on who could become the COO.
Rex joined UnitedHealth as CFO and executive vice president of health services arm Optum more than a decade ago. In 2016, he was named CFO and EVP of UnitedHealth.
The executive transition comes as UnitedHealth struggles with the aftereffects of a cyberattack, which hit its claims processing division, Change Healthcare, last month.
According to an update on UnitedHealth’s website earlier this week, restoration of Change’s systems is ongoing, and some disruptions could continue through April.
UnitedHealth has advanced some $3.3 billion in payments to affected hospitals and doctor’s offices to date, though providers and lawmakers say the company’s actions have been insufficient.
UnitedHealth is also facing disruption from regulatory changes and rising utilization in Medicare Advantage that threaten profits from the lucrative program. In addition, the Minnesota-based company is continuing to build out its physician network, despite an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into whether its provider buys may be having anticompetitive effects.
