Mr. Thompson managed a division that employs about 140,000 people and offers insurance plans to employers and individuals.

Authorities say the veteran health-insurance executive was shot Wednesday morning by an unknown assailant outside the company’s investor conference.

Brian Thompson, the US health care insurance CEO who was gunned down in an apparent targeted attack in Manhattan on Wednesday, had been receiving threats related to medical "coverage", according to his widow. "There had been some threats," Paulette Thompson told NBC. "Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [medical] coverage? I don’t know details."