UnitedHealth Group has named long-time executive Tim Noel as the new chief executive for its massive UnitedHealthcare health insurance business.

The announcement Thursday came a little more than seven weeks after the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was killed in a fatal ambush on a New York City sidewalk.

In 2007, Noel joined the health insurance division at Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth Group. He served most recently as CEO for UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement, which includes the company's Medicare Advantage health plans.

Noel takes the helm at the nation's largest health insurer at a time of turmoil for the industry amid lingering questions about whether business practices wrongly delay or block care for too many patients. A group of faith-based shareholders at UnitedHealth Group announced this month a petition calling on the company to report on the human and economic toll from limiting or delaying access to health care.

"As a business leader, Tim views the path to success through a simple prism: Listen to employees and customers, focus on what they say matters most, then consistently and reliably deliver on those expectations. Every time. No exceptions," Andrew Witty, UnitedHealth Group CEO, wrote in a message to employees obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

"As a leader of teams and of people, Tim is a consummate collaborator," Witty wrote. "He's the first to tilt the spotlight onto others. He channels his energies into developing the people around him."

Noel became CEO for the company's Medicare business in 2021. He's moved through a series of finance and operations roles, Witty wrote, over 18 years with the company.

UnitedHealth Group is the parent company to UnitedHealthcare, as well as a fast-growing health services business called Optum. It's one of the largest companies in the country, with about 400,000 workers overall, including about 19,000 in Minnesota.

At the end of December, about 49.3 million people in the U.S. had health insurance from UnitedHealthcare, up from 47.2 million people at the end of 2023. The company projects enrollment will grow this year to about 51 million people.

"Today, more people are choosing United, and many millions more continue to stay," Witty wrote. "What they're responding to are the many ways we're working to make it easier for consumers to engage with their health care."

UnitedHealthcare is divided into three health insurance divisions, the largest of which by membership sells health plans to employer groups and individuals. Another division includes health plans in Medicaid, the state-federal program for people with lower incomes and/or disabilities.

A third division is for Medicare beneficiaries, where about 4.3 million people buy "Medigap" supplements from UnitedHealthcare that round out benefits for people with original Medicare. A key source of profits over the past decade has been Medicare Advantage plans, where the government pays UnitedHealthcare to manage care for seniors.

UnitedHealthcare is the largest seller of Medicare Advantage coverage in the U.S. The company expects by the end of the year that enrollment will have grown by 700,000 to 800,000 people, reaching up to 8.45 million enrollees.

During a conference call with investors last week, a stock analyst asked UnitedHealth Group executives to comment on recently announced Medicare Advantage payment rates for 2026. Witty referred the question to Noel.

"As you know, these rates are preliminary at this point in time and won't be finalized until April. And so, therefore, probably not super productive to start speculating on elements of that," Noel said during the conference call. "I will say we are looking forward very much to engaging the new administration on this item and also a host of other items as it relates to the Medicare Advantage program."

In December, Democrats in the U.S. Senate raised concerns about President Donald Trump's choice to run the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, saying Dr. Mehmet Oz has strongly supported Medicare privatization over the years.

Financial prospects for the business have dimmed somewhat over the last two years due to changes in how the federal government makes risk adjustment payments to health insurers in the Medicare Advantage program. For years, critics alleged that UnitedHealthcare led other insurers in gaming these risk adjustment payments — a charge the company denies.