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UnitedHealth’s comeback CEO is getting $1 million a year and $60 million in stock options

Huge stock grants are taking over top CEO pay packages.

5/16/25 9:51AM

UnitedHealth is giving new CEO Stephen Hemsley more than $60 million to step back into the top job, eight years after he left the position in 2017. According to an SEC filing from the company on Wednesday, the 72-year-old will get $1 million a year, no annual bonus, and $60 million worth of stock options that will vest after three years.

Hemsley returned to UnitedHealth this Tuesday to replace Andrew Witty, who unexpectedly resigned owing to “personal reasons.” Before stepping aside in 2017, Hemsley led UnitedHealth for over a decade to become the healthcare giant that we know today, expanding the company into moneymaking areas like pharmacy benefits and helping shares climb more than 200% over his tenure.

The company has changed a lot since Hemsley was last at the wheel though, with shares heading toward their worst month in history, down more than 40% since mid-April. The new CEO signed during a hell of a week, after his predecessor’s abrupt departure, the company withdrawing full-year guidance, and The Wall Street Journal yesterday reporting that the insurer is under investigation for possible Medicare fraud.

Given that the options “will not have any value if the stock does not increase,” per a company spokesman, and that Hemsley would forfeit them if he’s removed or resigns before three years, the pay package will likely serve as pretty strong motivation for the new chief. The deal is just the latest example of a growing shift in how top execs are compensated.

Money talks

American CEOs are getting paid more than ever, with a record median pay of $16.8 million last year, largely because of big boosts from stock grants, a high-risk, high-return compensation plan with an incentive to meet stock prices. Take Coherent’s CEO James Anderson for example, who topped last year’s list of the highest-paid CEOs with a whopping nine-figure pay package. Some 99% of his pay consisted of stock grants, the value of which multiplied as the shares skyrocketed.

Max Knoblauch1h

After upsetting GOP senators, GM scraps its EV tax credit extension plan

Roughly a week after it was first reported, GM’s plan to extend the now-expired $7,500 US federal EV tax credit to customers through a leasing program is no more.

Last week, Republican Senators Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and John Barrasso (Wyoming) wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging him to change the IRS rule that they said allowed automakers to game the law that ended the tax credit, “bilking” taxpayers.

Automakers GM and Ford, who each saw juiced-up EV sales ahead of the tax credit's expiration, sought to extend the subsidy by using their financial arms to put down payments on EVs already on their dealers’ lots. Those payments would qualify for the credit prior to its expiration, and the automakers would pass the savings along to lessees for several more months.

GM will now instead fund the incentive through the end of October without claiming the tax credit, Reuters reports.

Ford did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will similarly scrap its plans.

Exclusive: GM backtracks on plan to claim last-minute EV tax credits

GM will now instead fund the incentive through the end of October without claiming the tax credit, Reuters reports.

Ford did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will similarly scrap its plans.

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