• Gig work has expanded to include nurses at hospitals and medical facilities, per a new report.
• Many nurses who work this way face challenges similar to Uber drivers, the report found.
• Nursing represents a high-stakes use case of gig work apps, one of the researchers said.

Gig work has expanded to the nurses who care for patients in hospitals and care homes — and it's coming with some of the same challenges that delivery and rideshare contractors have already pointed to, according to a new report.

Apps like CareRev, Clipboard Health, and ShiftKey have taken an approach similar to the one companies like Uber and Instacart have used to build up their workforces, and applied it to nursing at hospitals, care homes, and other medical facilities.

But the report, which the Roosevelt Institute released a summary of this week, found that medical facilities often turn to gig nursing services as a way to cut expenses, especially under the tutelage of private equity firms.

Medical professionals on the apps, which the report collectively calls "Uber for Nursing," also face many of the same issues that other gig workers do, from low pay to having their accounts on the platforms deactivated with little or no explanation.

The apps make pitches that are attractive to the nurses themselves, Katie Wells, a senior Fellow at think tank Groundwork Collaborative and one of the report's authors, told Business Insider in an interview. Wells wrote the report with Funda Ustek Spilda, a senior lecturer at King's College London and a research associate at the University of Oxford's Oxford Internet Institute.

Full-time nursing jobs often involve putting in long hours as well as working night or weekend shifts. COVID's strain on hospitals and other medical facilities also pushed many nurses to quit or consider finding other work.

Like rideshare and delivery companies, the apps say that they offer nurses more choices over how and when they work. ShiftKey's website, for instance, says that its users have "the freedom to make choices best suited to their lives" including how much they earn and "their relationship with work."

For a burned-out nurse, that can be an appealing pitch, Wells said.

"There is almost no flexibility and control," Wells said. "So it is no wonder that these apps become attractive."

Wells and Spilda interviewed 29 nurses and nursing assistants for their study. The interviewees all used at least one gig work app to find nursing shifts.

Like delivery and rideshare contractors, nurses who use the apps must claim jobs through them. The nursing apps often charge a fee for access, and workers bid with their pay rates. The user who offers the lowest pay gets the shift, according to the report.

Working the shift, however, can be tricky. When they show up for a gig, the nurses often have to navigate the facility themselves — even if they have never worked there before.

"At most hospitals and medical facilities, no orientations are required for gig nurses and nursing assistants," the report reads. "Workers do not know where supply closets are located, how to access patient portals with medical histories and current medication lists, and whom to contact in the chain of command."

And like Uber drivers or Instacart delivery workers, nurses who use the apps don't have a boss to contact when things go wrong. One Oregon-based nurse interviewed for the study said that she was barred from Clipboard Health's app for two weeks after she had a hernia on the job and had to leave early.

In another instance, the same nurse said that she went to work with COVID after learning that she couldn't cancel her shift without losing "attendance points" and hurting her chances of getting gigs in the future, the report reads.

"It sucks that there's nobody that you can get ahold of immediately," the nurse told Wells and Spilda.

"It's really as if AI has eaten the managers," Wells said.

The apps also advertise that nurses can make more on their platforms than at other jobs. One nurse interviewed by the researchers said she made gross pay of $23 an hour on ShiftKey. That dropped to around $13 an hour after accounting for fees that she paid to ShiftKey.

Despite the challenges, the report found that 19 of the 29 people interviewed planned to continue working for the apps, though some also said they also had jobs in other industries to make enough money to live.

The report says that gig nursing apps are often used by facilities that are trying to save money and are under pressure to produce returns for investors.

Wells told BI that bringing the gig economy to medical care creates risks not present in food delivery or rideshare.

"The stakes are higher because this has to do with patient safety, and the immediacy of health and care makes things more palpable," she told BI.

ShiftMed, which employs its nurses as W2 employees but still offers them much of the flexibility of gig work, said that it deactivates nurses' accounts for various reasons, from patient safety to legal violations.

"Nurses file an appeal by submitting a formal review through the app or support channel, after which ShiftMed conducts an internal investigation, reviews records, and determines the next steps," CEO Todd Walrath said in a statement to BI.

The company said that it also offers an orientation so that users "are fully prepared for any clinical setting by aligning health system-specific requirements, such as training or shadowing before they begin shifts," Walrath said.

CareRev, Clipboard Health, and ShiftKey did not respond to requests for comment.

Are you a nurse who works as an independent contractor with a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

As a parent, you want to do your best. You focus on your child, ensuring they're emotionally safe, properly socialized, and academically challenged — anything to set them up for success.

It's hard to fathom a dark outcome: that your child would grow up to assassinate someone, or be accused of doing so.

That's what Luigi Mangione's parents experienced last week, as the 26-year-old accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was charged with murder as an act of terrorism. And the parents of 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who killed two and injured six others at a Wisconsin school before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot, according to police.

Working with parents who've watched their kids sink into dangerous behavior, family therapist Rachel Goldberg said it's very hard for them to heal. She said parents must strive to find self-compassion and "separate their identity from their child's actions," no matter how challenging.

Parents of shooters experience remorse and confusion

In her 2016 memoir, "A Mother's Reckoning," Sue Klebold, the mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold, wrote about struggling to call her son a "monster" after he killed 13 people in 1999. "When I hear about terrorists in the news, I think, 'That's somebody's kid,'" she wrote in the book.

Peter Rodger, the father of Isla Vista killer Elliot Rodger, wrestled with similar confusion and guilt. He remembers sitting in horror, watching his son's retribution video, which he posted on YouTube before stabbing, shooting, and using a car to hit bystanders in 2014. "Elliot was far from evil," Rodger told ABC that year. "Something happened to him. He was the most beautiful, kind, sweetheart of a boy."

Such an event "forces us as parents to contend with our worst fears," Annie Wright, another family therapist, told Business Insider. "The lack of control, at some level, over who they become."

Mangione's family is wealthy and well-known in their community as the owners of a golf club and philanthropists. He attended the Gilman School, a prestigious private school in Baltimore, where he graduated as valedictorian and was described by his peers as "very social" and "very into sports."

Goldberg said that a parent's imagined worst-case scenario is usually that their child would become a lonely, unemployed adult living in their basement. If a child does the unthinkable, recovering as a parent can feel impossible.

Limits to a parent's control

Kids don't need to be out of the house to be mysteries to their parents. In the wake of the Wisconsin shooting, authorities are combing through Rupnow's online activity in search of a motive, finding a version of her life seemingly concealed from others, like her fascination with the Columbine shooters.

Once a child is over 18 and financially independent, parents' control over their lives becomes even more tenuous. In the Mangiones' case, their son stopped responding to messages for months before he was arrested.

For parents watching their adult kids slip into alarming behavior, their options are legally limited, Goldberg said. Often, their best defense is talking to their kid, but "it really depends how much their adult child is willing to let them in."

Wright said that involving third parties can help. Parents can try family therapy or find licensed professionals who can help manage their child's physical or emotional pain. Parents can also call their local authorities in extreme cases, such as when their child is in immediate danger or endangering someone else.

Goldberg said the best thing parents can do is know their child as well as possible and act when something feels off. "Don't wait until it gets really bad if you can possibly intervene earlier," she said.

Even then, sometimes, intervention falls short.

Rodgers, the Isla Vista shooter, was in therapy from the age of 9. Peter Lanza, the father of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, said his son had been assessed by mental health professionals multiple times.

Pain a parent can't fix

Loneliness and isolation can often be red flags when analyzing a child's behavior. Still, Mangione, who started a gaming club in college and was part of a fraternity, appeared surrounded by people.

This made it harder for him to disappear fully: In July 2024, when he cut off contact with his family, cousins and friends reached out on social media. In November, his mother filed a missing person's report in San Francisco, where Mangione has some relatives.

Despite his seemingly solid network of friends and family, Mangione had spondylolisthesis, a painful spinal condition. He frequented Reddit communities related to back pain, describing his symptoms as "absolutely brutal" and "life-halting." That can be isolating, Goldberg said.

"It is a very lonely place to be in pain all the time because you can't really be present with people," he added.

In 2022, when Mangione lived in a Hawaiian surf community, he experienced sciatica, debilitating nerve pain, in his leg. R.J. Martin, who owned the co-living space, told The New York Times that Mangione "knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn't possible."

While parents can do a lot to relate to a child's pain, such as listening and doing their best to understand the nuances of what their child is going through, "empathy alone can't bridge every gap," Wright said.

Parents can still protect themselves

Goldberg's clients, particularly parents of kids with substance abuse issues, struggle to move past their guilt. Acceptance can take a lifetime.

"They live in fear of getting a phone call from the police or hospital; they question everything they have done," she said. "They often feel incredibly helpless and stuck."

Wright said the resulting grief from something like this can be "extraordinarily complex" and "often includes sorrow, not only for the victims and their families but for the loss of the child they thought they knew."

She suggested therapy and, for those with religious affiliations, seeking spiritual leaders they trust. Parents can feel so many conflicting emotions, and it's important to "allow these emotions to coexist without rushing to tidy them up," she said.

This is especially hard for the parents who felt they tried their best.

Upon learning of Mangione's arrest, his family released a statement contrary to the manifesto found with their son during his arrest. "We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved," they said. "We are devastated by this news."

Some parents try to find meaning in the tragedy. Klebold wrote her memoir and participated in press interviews. Chin Rodger, mother of Elliot, started speaking at threat assessment trainings. She hopes that people will get better at identifying the red flags of someone going through a mental crisis.

Still, some just wish it never happened. Adam Lanza's father blames himself for overlooking the warning signs. "You can't get any more evil," Lanza told the New Yorker in 2014. "How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he's my son? A lot."

• Luigi Mangione is under monitoring in a 9-by-7-foot federal solitary-confinement cell in Brooklyn.
• On Monday, he may be moved to the same protective unit as Diddy and SBF, who are in the same jail.
• A prison consultant called his conditions "miserable."

Luigi Mangione is being held in a 9-by-7-foot solitary-confinement cell at the federal jail in Brooklyn that also houses the rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and the cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, Business Insider has learned.

The trio could be living together in the same 15-man protective-custody unit as early as Monday, Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who has knowledge of Mangione's housing, said.

Federal prison records confirmed Friday morning that Mangione, Combs, and Bankman-Fried were at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.

Mangione is set to remain in solitary until at least Monday in one of MDC's small cinderblock Special Housing Unit cells — in a unit also known as "the SHU" and "the hole," Mangel said.

He'll eat meals in his cell, and inmates in his situation are typically allowed out for one hour of recreation or showering a day. Guards are supposed to check on him every 15 minutes.

"Miserable, just miserable," Mangel said when asked to describe conditions in federal solitary-confinement cells.

"SHUs are notoriously loud. You have people in there for psychiatric issues, for disciplinary reasons, and for withdrawal" from drugs, he said, adding: "So it is the loudest place in the jail — people are banging on their doors at all hours of the night."

Mangione is being held without bail on death-penalty-eligible federal charges in the December 4 ambush fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He has yet to be arraigned on New York charges of murder as an act of terror, which carries a top sentence of life without parole.

New, high-profile inmates are often monitored in solitary cells in the days before their units are assigned, said Mangel, who said he had been in communication with the defense team through Craig Rothfeld, a prison consultant.

Rothfeld, who was in the audience for Mangione's first federal court appearance on Thursday, declined to comment.

"It's a standard protocol," Mangel said. "This is especially true for a young man that, you know, might have some psychiatric concerns or his legal team or the BOP has concerns," he added, referring to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

"Even though it's called the 'SHU,' it's not for disciplinary reasons. It's strictly for administrative reasons," Mangel said.

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson declined to comment, saying: "For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any individual including their housing assignments."

Karen Friedman Agnifilo told BI that neither she nor Marc Agnifilo, her cocounsel, had spoken to Mandel. They did not immediately comment on Mangione's jail conditions.

The husband-and-wife team's Manhattan firm, Agnifilo Intrater, also represents Combs, who is being held without bail while awaiting a trial scheduled for May 5 on federal sex-trafficking charges.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

In representing Combs, the firm complained about conditions at MDC throughout three unsuccessful bail applications, arguing that there were frequent random lockdowns and that inmates were deprived of basic trial-preparation materials, such as folders and notebooks. Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo called the conditions "horrific" in one court filing.

One former prosecutor described the federal jail as frequently too cold or too hot and crawling with cockroaches — basically, "hell on earth."

Mangione's solitary-confinement cell would be equipped with a metal bunk-style bed and a steel one-piece combination toilet and sink. If he's lucky, the cell has a small built-in writing desk.

"You're usually only allowed out for one hour a day, but it could be more restrictive due to staffing issues, where you're only allowed out three times a week to take a shower or walk in a small, enclosed area," Mangel said.

Mangione would also be allowed out of his cell for attorney calls and visits, Mangel said.

"The defendant is actually sitting in a cage during the call," he said. "It's like a fenced-in area that has a monitor, and it's behind plexiglass, and the defendant is able to talk and have an unmonitored legal call during that time, usually for one-hour blocks."

Defendants can find these calls canceled at the last minute "because there's lockdowns and staffing issues," Mangel said, adding: "You get everything arranged, and then we're on the call, waiting, and the defendant never shows up."

He said he expected Mangione would have better access to phones and visitors after he's moved to the jail's protective custody early next week.

Mangel said he had been a prison consultant for Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence for stealing $8 billion from customers of his FTX crypto exchange. Bankman-Fried has remained at MDC's protective custody unit since his arrest last year.

Mangione's next federal court date was set for January 18. As of Friday morning, a date had not been set for his Manhattan arraignment on state murder charges.

This story has been updated to include responses from the BOP and Mangione's attorney.

The cyberattack on Ascension ranks as the third-largest healthcare-related breach of 2024.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• Luigi Mangione is in New York to face both state and federal murder charges.
• His new federal indictment alleges he stalked and then killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• Manhattan prosecutors say state charges will "proceed in parallel with any federal case."

Luigi Mangione appeared in federal court Thursday on new federal murder charges that could result in the death penalty or life in prison.

It was Mangione's first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom, this one crowded with press and federal staff, on charges in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He is expected to be arraigned on state murder charges in a courthouse one block away on Friday.

Mangione's voice was calm but firm as he answered the judge's questions.

"Mr. Mangione, do you understand what you have been accused of?" US Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker asked at one point before he entered his plea.

"Yes," he answered.

Edward Y. Kim, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, has yet to say if he will seek the death penalty or a life sentence for the most serious charge in the four-count indictment — murder through the use of a firearm.

One former federal prosecutor called the death penalty a "remote" possibility, given Mangione's youth, and the chance that he may have suffered a mental breakdown in the six months before the shooting.

"In New York's federal courts, it's uncommon for them to seek the death penalty, and I think probably more uncommon for juries to want to authorize it, even assuming that Mr. Mangione killed Mr. Thompson in the way the government is alleging," said Michael Bachner, now in private practice.

The other three federal counts against Mangione allege he possessed and used an illegal firearm, and that he traveled interstate — between Georgia and New York, in order to stalk and kill Thompson.

Mangione presented an orderly, if tense, appearance in the chilly 26th-floor courtroom.

He was clean-shaven and his bushy eyebrows neatly groomed. Mangione sat with his shoulders raised and held stiff and wore khaki pants and a navy quarter-zip sweater over a white collared button-down shirt.

His ankles were shackled together with thick chains beneath the table where he sat. He wore bright orange slip-on sneakers without shoelaces.

To either side of Mangione sat his lawyers, husband-wife legal team Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo. Both are veteran criminal attorneys and former prosecutors. Their firm, Agnifilo Intrater, LLC, also represents Sean "Diddy" Combs in his federal sex-trafficking case, scheduled to be tried in the same Manhattan courthouse in May.

After Parker read the charges aloud to him, Mangione's posture relaxed. He repeatedly raised his left hand to pat down the hair at the back and side of his head.

He crossed his arms and wore a skeptical expression on his face with his tongue poking out between his lips while Friedman Agnifilo demanded clarity on how different law enforcement agencies coordinated and would present evidence in the case.

Mangione's next court date was set for January 18. His lawyers did not apply for bail, though Friedman Agnifilo said in court that she may do so on a future date.

Earlier Thursday, in a Pennsylvania courtroom, Mangione abandoned his extradition fight and was whisked to New York in an NYPD aviation plane and, upon landing at a Long Island airport, via police chopper to a lower Manhattan heliport.

His arrival in federal court was greeted by dozens of reporters and a smattering of fans holding messages of support written on cardboard.

"Health over Wealth," read one.

Mangione has yet to be arraigned on his first murder case, announced Tuesday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

He faces up to life in prison on that state indictment, which alleges he murdered Thompson as an act of terror — a first-degree felony, the highest state charge and penalty available.

In a press statement after Mangione's federal appearance, Kim said he expects the state case — announced by Bragg just two days prior — would proceed to trial first.

In court Thursday, Friedman Agnifilo called the dual prosecutions "highly unusual" and said the charges between the Manhattan district attorney's office and the federal US attorney's office seemed to contradict each other.

The district attorney's indictment alleges Mangione killed Thompson in furtherance of "terrorism" that affects a "population of people," she said. But the federal charges accuse Mangione of stalking Thompson as an individual, she said.

Police and prosecutors say Mangione killed Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five-day manhunt, on local gun and false ID charges. A Manhattan grand jury later indicted on charges related to the killing itself, and the New York cases will take priority over the lesser charges in Pennsylvania.

While in jail in Pennsylvania, Mangione received 54 email messages and 87 pieces of mail, Maria Bivens, of the state Department of Corrections, told BI.

There were also 163 deposits made into Mangione's commissary account, Bivens said. Bivens declined to say how much money was deposited in total.

These accounts can be used to buy toiletries or additional food items in the jail's store.

• Healthcare-focused AI startups are raising billions to help improve the US system.
• AI can help streamline clinical documentation, drug research, and medical billing.
• This article is part of "Trends in Healthcare," a series about the innovations and industry leaders shaping patient care.

The founder of Suki, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate healthcare documents, raised $70 million in funding from investors in a Series D round that was disclosed this past fall.

He said it really didn't take that much persuading: With an epidemic of stressed- and burned-out physicians, there was an obvious need for their AI software, he added.

"Most of the investor conversations over the last year and a half have been, 'Well, it looks like the market is here,'" said Punit Singh Soni, Suki's founder. "Are you going to be the winner or not?"

Suki sells an AI-powered assistant that takes notes during a conversation between patients and clinicians. The notes can be reviewed by the doctor and submitted as an electronic health record. This saves time on administrative tasks and allows physicians more time to take care of patients, a resource that's becoming increasingly limited among healthcare professionals.

Surveys have consistently found that doctors and other medical workers are burned out from working in an often overloaded, convoluted, and inefficient system. The US spent $4.8 trillion on healthcare in 2023, according to a January report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The US also spends more per person than nearly all other developed nations, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Despite this, health outcomes were poorer, with Americans facing a lower life expectancy, higher rates of treatable and preventable excess deaths, and less efficient healthcare systems.

Cash-strapped hospitals and private practices have lagged behind the financial-services and telecommunications industries in applying newer technologies, but the healthcare industry is increasingly considering artificial intelligence as it contends with high labor costs and a lot of opportunities to automate routine tasks. The pandemic exacerbated these challenges with staffing shortages as overworked doctors and nurses quit the profession.

To make healthcare more efficient, AI startups like Suki, Zephyr AI, and Tennr have raised millions with vast promises, including making repetitive tasks like billing and note-taking easier, improving the accuracy of clinical diagnosis, and identifying the right patient population for emerging treatments.

But the challenges are vast. The healthcare industry's budget allocations for generative AI are trailing those of many other core industries, such as energy and materials, consumer goods, and retail. Clinical diagnosis will continue to require a human in the loop, so the process can't be fully automated. The healthcare industry is highly regulated, and quite often, venture capitalists will wait for clarity on laws from the federal government before aggressively pushing AI tech advancements forward.

A $370 billion bet on boosting the healthcare sector's productivity

The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that generative AI can boost productivity for the healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical-products industries by as much as $370 billion by accelerating drug research, making clinical documentation easier, speeding up medical billing, and helping doctors make diagnoses.

Some big funding rounds announced in 2024 highlight the diverse use cases for AI in the healthcare sector. They include $150 million raised by the clinical-documentation AI startup Abridge in February, the drug-discovery AI startup Xaira Therapeutics bringing in $1 billion before its launch in April, Atropos Health's $33 million Series B in May to help doctors analyze real-world evidence with generative AI, and the medical-billing-automation provider Candid Health raising $29 million in September.

Parth Desai, a partner at Flare Capital Partners, has steered investments into healthcare startups such as Photon Health and SmarterDx. He said that healthcare organizations had been dedicating more money to bolster their AI strategies, beginning in late 2022 and accelerating through 2024. That's boosting demand for the tools these startups are developing. There's also less pressure to immediately prove a return on investment, which budget-conscious health systems have closely monitored in the past when allocating dollars for technology.

"The thing that we're really studying before making an investment decision is: Do budgets exist today to pay for this technology?" Desai told Business Insider. "Or are they going to exist in a large-enough fashion in the next five to 10 years to support this technology?"

Candid Health and Akasa aim to cut costs and automate medical billing

One area of particular promise has been medical billing, which could benefit from large language model automation. An LLM could, for example, analyze a large volume of claims in a client's system and accurately match them with insurers' unique billing codes, a process required for repayment to a physician for their services. Hospitals have traditionally relied on human medical coders to hunt down reimbursements from insurers.

"The software used to do billing was built a long time ago and basically wasn't kept up to date," Nick Perry, a cofounder and the CEO of Candid Health, said.

Malinka Walaliyadde, the CEO of Akasa — another medical-billing-focused AI startup — said the company builds customized LLMs for each healthcare institution it serves. Typically, the aim for these LLMs is to lower costs by lessening the reliance on human medical coders. This often reduces errors in billing and speeds up repayment cycles.

"We looked at what are the biggest pain points for health systems," Walaliyadde told BI. He said that Akasa's focus is on developing LLM products for medical coding and simplifying prior authorization, a process that requires approval from a health-plan provider before a patient can receive a treatment. "Those are the ones where you could really move the needle," Walaliyadde said.

AI for health screenings

George Tomeski, the founder of Helfie AI, is in the middle of pitching investors to raise as much as $200 million in a new round of funding that he hopes to close by the first half of 2025.

Tomeski said the funding would help Helfie scale as it exits beta testing for the company's app. The app, also called Helfie, uses a smartphone camera to do medical "checks" that screen for illnesses including COVID-19, tuberculosis, and certain skin conditions.

"We're targeting all the health conditions that lead to avoidable mortality," Tomeski said, adding that the app focuses on respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. The intention is for these checks —which can cost as low as $0.20 a person per screen — to serve as a form of preventive care and as an incentive to go see a doctor in person.

While some funding is going toward sales and marketing, talent acquisition, and ensuring adherence to regulations around privacy and healthcare data, a large chunk is still being allocated to product development as AI tech advances quickly.

Dr. Brigham Hyde, a cofounder and the CEO of Atropos Health, said his latest funding announcement, in May, was timed to coincide with the geared-up launch of ChatRWD, an AI copilot that can answer doctors' questions and quickly churn out published studies based on healthcare data. Hyde said he's keen to bring in big partners this time, including the pharmaceutical giant Merck and the medical-supplies and equipment maker McKesson.

But Hyde also had to show some restraint. He said that when Atropos Health moved forward with its Series B rounds, dozens of venture capitalists expressed interest in leading the round. The company was offered up to $100 million but took only one-third of that amount.

"I don't always think that's a good idea," Hyde told BI. "As a founder, you want to raise the right amount of money for your business and for the stage you're at."

It may be tempting to take more, as many healthcare AI startups — a vast majority still in the seed and early-stage funding rounds — are racing to outmaneuver rivals. Even if the technology is right, it has to get past regulatory approvals and persuade cautious hospitals and health systems to open up their wallets.

"You can build as much product as you want, but you can never build a market," Soni of Suki said. "It shows up, or it doesn't show up."

As a dietitian, Vanessa Rissetto’s main goal is to help people stay healthy. She also knew that there were some roadblocks to achieving that. For example, the Black community deals with pressing health concerns, in addition to a disproportionate lack of access to care. More than 80% of registered dietitians in the U.S. are white, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• Luigi Mangione's NY judge is Gregory Carro, described as tough on crime and sympathetic to victims.
• Lawyers call him no-nonsense, and some say he leans pro-prosecution.
• Carro has allowed video and still photography in his courtroom during past high-profile proceedings.

His cases have earned tabloid nicknames, including the "rape cops," a "killer nanny," and a "blowtorch hubby." In 2021, he presided over the moped hit-and-run death of Gone Girl actor Lisa Banes.

New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro has had dozens of sensational — sometimes horrific — cases in his 25 years on the Manhattan criminal bench.

As early as Thursday afternoon, Carro will preside over his most high-profile media case yet, the prosecution of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of the ambush shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

With Carro on the bench in a likely-packed 13th-floor courtroom, Mangione, 26, will be officially informed of the first-degree murder indictment against him. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday that the indictment alleges a top charge of murder as an act of terrorism.

After the charges are read, Mangione will have the chance to enter a plea of not guilty. Carro, who is expected to keep the case, will then set a next court date and order that Mangione be taken to a city jail to await that date.

A former Manhattan narcotics and homicide prosecutor, Carro was appointed to Manhattan's criminal court bench in 1998 by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Carro is the son of retired Associate Justice John Carro, who in 1979 was the first Puerto Rican appointed as an appellate judge in New York.

A 'tough draw'

The younger Carro is known among defense lawyers at Manhattan Criminal Court as a "tough draw. "

If one lawyer tells another in a courthouse hallway, "I just learned my guy is going to be in front of Carro," another might commiserate, "Wow, that's a tough draw," veteran attorneys in the city told BI.

Prosecutors might say the opposite of Carro: "Good draw."

"Of course, in a case like this, there are no good judges," said longtime Manhattan defense attorney Ron Kuby. "You're not going to find any members of Antifa on the bench."

Kuby called Carro "harsh but not crazy," as Manhattan criminal judges go.

Five Manhattan defense lawyers interviewed by Business Insider said the judge leans pro-prosecution. None would say so on the record, because they may have cases before him in the future.

The most common descriptor among lawyers reached by BI? "No nonsense."

"He's a tough judge," said a former fellow jurist, Charles Solomon, a state Supreme Court Justice in Manhattan who retired in 2017.

"Very firm, very fair, and well-respected by his colleagues," Solomon said of Carro.

Judges are assigned at random

Solomon said that Carro would have been assigned as Mangione's judge through a strictly random process.

What likely happened was that on December 4, the day of Thompson's shooting, Mangione's lead prosecutor, Joel Seidemann, happened to be on call to "catch" new homicides.

Seidemann's team of prosecutors feeds all of its new cases into one of only two assigned courtrooms, and one of them was Carro's.

"This is the typical way a case gets assigned," agreed another retired state Supreme Court justice, Michael Obus, who served as a supervising judge in Manhattan Criminal Court from 2009 to 2017.

"He's a solid guy," Obus said. "He's a very good trial judge. In general, lawyers could do a lot worse than Judge Carro."

Law, order, and victims

At sentencings, Carro is an emphatic advocate for law, order, and victims, his many news clippings show.

"I can only imagine what memories are haunting the victim in this case and his significant other," he said last year at a recent high-profile sentencing, for the random, attempted slashing murder of a French tourist.

In 2011, Carro presided over the trial of an NYPD officer accused of raping a young fashion executive — a woman he'd been dispatched to help when she was too intoxicated to get out of her taxi.

A jury cleared the officer of rape and convicted him of official misconduct for the three caught-on-video visits he made to the woman's apartment during his shift that night.

Police misconduct offenses "rip at that fabric that holds us all together," Carro told the former officer, Kenneth Moreno, before sentencing him to a year at Rikers Island jail.

"You, sir, ripped a gaping hole in that fabric in committing those crimes."

It was Carro's biggest media case until now.

Moreno's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, was one of the lawyers to call Carro "no nonsense."

"Not easy on defendants or defense lawyers, for that matter," Tacopina said.

"Honestly, it doesn't matter what judge has this case," the former criminal attorney for President-elect Donald Trump, added. "There is such overwhelming evidence of guilt here. It is not a 'Who done it.' It is a 'Was he sane when he did it' case."

In his most high-profile murder — dubbed the "killer nanny" case by city tabloids — Carro allowed a jury to hear the insanity defense of Yoselyn Ortega, who in 2012 fatally stabbed two young children in her care.

Defense lawyers called two psychiatrists to the stand to testify that Ortega heard voices — including Satan's — urging her to kill the children. Jurors also heard that when the mother returned home to witness the carnage in her Upper West Side bathroom, Ortega was nearby, slashing into her own throat with the murder weapon.

The jury rejected the defense.

Carro called Ortega "pure evil" at her 2018 sentencing.

Then he sentenced Ortega to life without parole for first-degree murder, the same maximum penalty Mangione faces for the same top charge in his indictment.

Last month, the New York Times reported Carro sentenced a Long Island, New York man who admitted planning to "shoot up a synagogue" to ten years prison on a plea to possessing a weapon as a crime of terrorism.

A hack on UnitedHealth-owned tech giant Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the biggest data breaches of U.S. medical data in history.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

New details emerged about the Change Healthcare ransomware attack in Nebraska's complaint.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• Luigi Mangione is on track for a late Thursday murder arraignment in Manhattan, BI has learned.
• Barring a last-minute change of heart, he plans to waive extradition in PA earlier Thursday.
• His fate will be in the hands of Justice Gregory Carro, a veteran of the NY criminal bench.

Luigi Mangione is expected to be brought before a Manhattan judge on Thursday for arraignment on a first-degree murder charge that could keep him imprisoned for life, Business Insider has learned.

The 26-year-old suspect has agreed to formally waive extradition at a hearing Thursday morning in Blair County, Pennsylvania, a law enforcement source told BI, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to their connection to the case.

Barring any last-minute change of heart by Mangione — who has previously been fighting extradition — he would be immediately transferred to the custody of NYPD officers. The officers would then transport him to New York from Pennsylvania, where he has been held since his arrest 9 days ago in the December 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

"We have indications that the defendant may waive" extradition, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in announcing Mangione's indictment on Tuesday, without naming an arraignment date.

Once in Manhattan, Mangione would be brought directly to the Midtown North police precinct, home base for the Thompson murder investigation, said a second law enforcement source who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

After some preliminary processing, he will then be escorted out of the precinct.

"They want to do a perp walk for the media," in front of Midtown North, the second source said.

The precinct is in the same neighborhood where Thompson, a father of two sons from Minnesota, was ambushed outside a Hilton hotel, where he had been scheduled to speak at an investor meeting for the nation's largest healthcare insurer.

Police say Mangione is linked to the shooting by ballistic, DNA, and fingerprint evidence, in addition to writings recovered from him on his arrest.

Law enforcement is planning for an afternoon or early evening arraignment on Thursday, again barring any last-minute hitches that could push the timing into Friday.

Mangione's Pennsylvania hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.

New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, a more than 20-year veteran of the Manhattan criminal bench, will preside over the arraignment and be Mangione's judge going forward, according to court and law-enforcement sources.

Carro's last high-profile case was the electric-scooter death of movie and television actor Lisa Banes, who appeared in "Cocktail," "Gone Girl," and "Masters of Sex."

Mangione's New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Bragg declined comment.

• Verily, an Alphabet spinoff, plans to raise money and focus its strategy on healthcare AI in 2025.
• It plans to sell tech tools that other companies can use to build AI models and apps.
• The changes are underway as Verily separates itself from Alphabet and looks to mature as a company.

Verily Life Sciences plans to reorient its strategy around AI in 2025, just as it marks its 10th anniversary as a company under Alphabet.

The unit, which uses technology and data to improve healthcare, is looking to mature. As of January, it will have separated from many of Google's internal systems in an attempt to stand independently. Simultaneously, it's refocusing its strategy around AI, according to two employees with knowledge of the matter, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss confidential information.

This new strategy would primarily involve other healthcare companies using Verily's tech infrastructure to develop AI models and apps, resulting from a multi-year effort across teams. It ultimately aims to become companies' one-stop-shop for tech needs like training AI for drug discovery and building apps for health coaching.

The unit is also looking to raise another round of capital in the next year, the two people familiar with the matter said. The company's last investment was a $1 billion round led by Alphabet in 2022. Alphabet will likely lead the round again, although leadership could also bid for outside capital as Verily tries to become "increasingly independent," one source said.

The question for next year is whether Verily can finally start turning long-gestating ideas into profits. One of the people said Verily still generates the most revenue selling stop-loss insurance to employers, which is a far cry from the higher-margin business it's aiming for. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that this business, called Granular Insurance, was Verily's most lucrative.

Verily has been criticized in the past for having a rudderless strategy. It's entertained bets on topics as diverse as editing mosquito populations and helping pharmaceutical companies run clinical trials.

In an email to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Verily declined to comment on non-public information. He confirmed the company's plans to provide tech infrastructure for third parties, designed to provide "precision health capabilities across research and care."

The AI strategy's origin story

Verily's idea to become a tech provider for other healthcare companies grew out of its own internal needs a few years ago when it decided to "re-platform" its various bets on a shared infrastructure, a source familiar with the matter said.

The multi-year effort is now coming to fruition, and Verily plans to sell the core technology it uses to health plans, providers, digital health startups, and life sciences companies.

The platform will include data storage and AI training. Companies could also use Verily's tech tools to spin up apps without having to code as much. For example, a digital health startup could use Verily's tools to build a coaching app with AI insights on weight loss.

"Large pharma companies, for example, look at the work we do and recognize that the data science applications or clinical research tools that they need to build themselves could be better if they were built using our platform," said Verily CEO Stephen Gillett in an interview with Fortune in November.

In that interview, Gillett said Verily's tech tools would include sophisticated AI capabilities for healthcare, data aggregation, privacy, and consent. One source said the company plans to start rolling them out in 2025.

Even as the leading AI models learn from the entirety of the internet, healthcare data remains largely private. Subsequently, Verily is betting that there's a growing need to further specialize the models for patient care and research. The upstart already does this work through its partnership with clients like the National Institutes of Health. Through a business line called Workbench, Verily hosts massive datasets for the NIH, complete with analysis tools.

Verily hasn't dropped its ambitions to grow its own healthcare business. In 2026, it plans to relaunch a diabetes and hypertension-focused app, Lightpath, broadly for health plans and employers — this time with AI coaches supplementing human ones. Verily also intends to expand Lightpath to more health conditions.

Verily's reshuffling

Verily spun out of Google's moonshot group in 2015 and remained part of Alphabet's collection of long-term businesses, sometimes called "other bets." Under its then-CEO Andy Conrad, the unit explored a menagerie of ideas from surgical robots to wearables. Several of these projects — glucose-monitoring contact lenses, for instance — haven't panned out.

Shortly after Gillett replaced Conrad as CEO in 2023, he announced the company would lay off 15% of its workforce and "advance fewer initiatives with greater resources."

Since then, Verily has pruned projects and teams to save costs and sharpen its focus. Dr. Amy Abernethy, Verily's former chief medical officer who joined the company in 2021, focused on aiding clinical research before departing late last year.

Verily's shift to AI, meanwhile, seems to have coincided with the hiring of Myoung Cha and Bharat Rajagopal as the chief product and revenue officers, respectively, earlier this year.

Cutting ties with Google

Executing the AI strategy isn't the only challenge Verily's leadership faces in 2025.

Since 2021, the life science unit has been reducing its dependency on Google's internal systems and technology through an internal program known as Flywheel. BI previously reported that it set a December 16, 2024, deadline to cut many of these ties.

The separation involves Verily employees losing many of their cushy Google benefits, which has been a point of consternation for the group, the two people said.

Gillett remarked in a town hall meeting earlier this year that some employees may feel Verily is no longer the place for them after the separation, according to a person who heard the remarks.

• Luigi Mangione has waived extradition in Pennsylvania, meaning he will come to New York voluntarily.
• Former Manhattan prosecutors say it's a good move for him to abandon his weeklong extradition fight.
• They said Mangione wouldn't benefit from a losing battle and needed to be close to his lawyer.

At a court hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Luigi Mangione abandoned his fight against extradition and agreed to let New York police fly him to Manhattan.

Mangione will now face federal charges of stalking, murder through the use of a firearm, and a related gun charge, according to the federal complaint.

A representative for the federal court in Manhattan said a hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. before US Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker.

Mangione is also expected to be arraigned on the state murder charges before Justice Gregory Carro of the New York Supreme Court — a tough judge described as pro-prosecution by some lawyers — at a later time.

Former Manhattan prosecutors told Business Insider his leaving Pennsylvania willingly — to face arraignment on first-degree-murder charges in the December 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — was a smart move.

Fighting extradition, a process that could take months, makes no sense in this case, they said, and could only hurt the 26-year-old former Ivy League student.

"I think Karen realizes fighting is a waste of time," Michael Bachner, a lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor, told BI earlier this week, referring to Mangione's new defense lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Friedman Agnifilo, a former chief assistant attorney at the Manhattan district attorney's office, is married to Marc Agnifilo, the attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs in the rapper's federal sex-trafficking case. Their Manhattan law firm, Agnifilo Intrater, is set to defend in both high-profile cases.

"She's probably thought to herself, the evidence against my client is more than sufficient to lose an extradition hearing," Bachner said. "So what is the benefit of having one?"

Attorneys want to be near their clients, not shuttling back and forth — as an extradition battle drags on — between New York and central Pennsylvania, where Mangione is being held without bail.

"You don't want to be doing this from outside the jurisdiction," without easy access to your colleagues and law office, Jeremy Saland, a former prosecutor now in private practice, said.

Friedman Agnifilo did not respond to multiple requests for comment on her client's charges or extradition.

For some defendants, there are good reasons to fight being dragged across state lines to face charges, former prosecutors told BI.

"The benefit could be that you make them show their hand," Ikiesha Al-Shabazz, a defense attorney, said. At an extradition hearing, prosecutors are asked to demonstrate probable cause that the person being extradited committed the crime.

"You get to see some of the evidence," the former prosecutor said. "But this is the type of case where we pretty much know, from media reports, what the evidence will be."

New York Police Department officials say that evidence includes a 9 mm 3D printed "ghost gun" that matches the shooting ballistics and a spiral notebook of his writings. Both the gun and the notebook were recovered from his backpack when he was arrested last week at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald's following a five-day manhunt, police have said.

"What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention," the handwritten note from the spiral notebook says, law-enforcement officials told The New York Times.

Thompson was fatally shot on the sidewalk outside a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, where he was to speak at an investor meeting.

If Mangione had family in Pennsylvania, an extradition delay could have value, Al-Shabazz added — but that's not the case, either. Mangione's family is in Maryland, where they own a resort and country club.

"There's no humanitarian issue, either, where you don't want to be extradited to someplace where you won't get a fair trial," she said.

"These are the issues that you fight extradition over, but they're not prevalent in this case," she added. "So to fight extradition would only be to further delay the inevitable."

Fighting for the sake of fighting could work against his interests down the road, as Mangione seeks favorable treatment from his judge and prosecutors, Al-Shabazz said.

"You want to cooperate," Al-Shabazz, an adjunct law professor at St. John's University School of Law, said. "You don't want to make it harder for them to do their job for no reason if you're going to turn around and ask them for a plea deal, right?"

The allegations against Mangione are now playing out in three different courts.

In New York state court, if convicted of the top charge of first-degree murder, Mangione faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The top sentence under New York law would be life in prison without parole.

December 19, 2024: This story was updated to include information about Mangione's federal charges and extradition.

For the past decade, Rock Health cofounder and prolific startup investor Halle Tecco has made her name as a voice for the voiceless in fertility care.

She founded fertility e-commerce startup Natalist in 2019 and egg freezing and donation startup Cofertility in 2022. She bet early on several fertility startups like unicorn Kindbody and healthcare provider Tia. She espoused radical transparency about her previous struggles to have a child.

While she raised funding to help other people get pregnant, though, Tecco's battles with infertility continued. She suffered eleven miscarriages, including losing twins at 17 weeks pregnant.

Now, she's taking a huge step back from the industry she helped cement.

"People expect me to continue that narrative. But I've moved on, and I don't want to continue talking about it," she told Business Insider. "I'm not trying to be an infertility influencer."

As she built businesses that aimed to give women control in their fertility journeys, Tecco struggled with a lack of control over her own. Behind closed doors, her dogged optimism clashed with grief and frustration. Her therapist told her, "This is you getting PTSD treatment while still at war."

Today, Tecco is done making new fertility bets. She wants to return to what got her excited about digital health in the first place — encouraging new and exciting ideas in a sluggish industry.

She's writing a book about what to expect when innovating in healthcare. She started teaching a course at Harvard Medical School this year about the complex network of stakeholders involved in healthcare entrepreneurship. She co-hosts the digital health podcast The Heart of Healthcare, and she sits on the boards of healthcare benefits company Collective Health and Cofertility.

She'll continue to support the women's health companies she's invested in. But as far as she's concerned, the fertility-centered chapter of her life is closed.

"I'm a healthcare investor, not a fertility investor. And I want to get back to that," she said.

When Tecco went to Harvard Business School to get her MBA in 2009, she was already interested in healthcare innovation. But it was her time at Apple, where she spent the following summer working on healthcare offerings in the tech giant's app store, that brought her frustrations with the industry to a head.

"There's so much money in healthcare, and such a big opportunity to improve healthcare. Why is nobody building fun, useful things over here?" she recalls thinking.

Returning to business school for her second year, Tecco reconnected with classmate Nate Gross as he was getting his clinician networking startup Doximity, now a publicly traded company, off the ground. Together, they began an independent study about how to get entrepreneurs to bring fresh ideas and technologies to healthcare.

From that study, Rock Health was born — named for the many hours Tecco and Gross spent in front of a whiteboard in Harvard's Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.

Tecco and Gross started Rock Health in 2010 as an accelerator program at a time when few vertical-focused startup accelerators existed. Y Combinator and Techstars both launched about five years earlier to supercharge seed-stage tech startups with venture funding and expert guidance. Rock Health offered founders the chance to do the same in healthcare, with backing from VC firms like Accel Partners and NEA plus companies like Microsoft and Nike.

The firm has made some impressive investments through its venture fund, including in Waystar and Tempus AI, which both went public in 2024; Omada Health, which appears to be eyeing an IPO in 2025; and Lyra Health, which last raised capital at a nearly $5.6 billion valuation in 2022.

Gross and Tecco both attested that they were told "no" many, many times during Rock Health's creation. They faced plenty of pushback from longtime healthcare builders and investors who rejected their vision to bring more tech into the industry.

Those dismissals only strengthened Tecco's resolve.

"I made the promise that I will never be the cranky old guard. There's no use in it," Tecco said. "We need as many smart people helping us solve these problems as possible."

After Tecco moved with her husband Cloudera cofounder Jeff Hammerbacher from San Francisco to New York City in 2016, she stepped away from Rock Health. She'd set her eyes on her next goal: building a family.

Getting pregnant turned out to be "a huge struggle," Tecco said, as she confronted the high costs of fertility treatments, a stunning lack of support and education, and no guarantees of pregnancy. She told Business Insider in 2019 that her own fertility journey was fraught with "a lot of misinformation, a lot of secrecy and shame."

Tecco's son was born through IVF in 2017 after four years of trying. Adamant about improving the fertility care experience for others, Tecco officially launched Natalist two years later to provide products and educational materials to people trying to get pregnant, from at-home ovulation tests to prenatal vitamins.

"It gave me a lot of satisfaction to support others in a way that I hadn't been supported," she said.

Tecco was early in the femtech investment wave, too, founding and backing fertility startups when few others did. She first invested in Kindbody's seed round in 2018; by some estimates, VC funding for women's health increased more than 300% between 2018 and 2023, even as healthcare funding slumped overall last year.

While running Natalist, overseeing women's health strategy at Everly Health after Natalist was acquired, and then cofounding egg donation startup Cofertility, Tecco wanted to have a second child.

Getting pregnant a second time proved even more difficult. Tecco endured multiple unsuccessful rounds of IVF and eleven miscarriages, over nearly five years.

Throwing herself into her work did little to help her escape the heartbreak. Infertility and pregnancy, as she spent her spare time helping thousands of patients trying to conceive, were always on her mind. She wrestled with jealousy over other people's "miracle babies" as she waited desperately for her own.

Secondary infertility, the difficulty of having another child after a previous successful pregnancy, robbed Tecco of countless hours of her life and plenty of happiness. Miscarrying twins at 17 weeks pregnant was "the first time in my years where I didn't have a plan B," she wrote in a 2023 blog post.

She paused fertility treatments in the summer of 2022 to spend time with her family. After much reflection and therapy, she realized that "overcoming" her secondary infertility wouldn't mean having another child. It meant making peace with the idea that she never would.

"It was harder than I can explain to make that decision, especially if you're someone like me, where you're like, I want this thing, I'm going to get this thing," Tecco said.

But, she said, "I wanted to go into my 40s being really clear about my intentions of moving on."

Tecco entered healthcare not solely to invest in startups, or to build her own, but to help other aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs with fresh perspectives and technologies in clearing the industry's many hurdles. Now 41 years old, she wants to get back to that.

This year, she's been focused on writing a book with that very thesis, aiming to pass along her knowledge to the next generation of healthcare builders. She sees it as the natural next step up from her blog, where she's covered topics from the value of an MBA versus a master's degree in public health (both degrees that Tecco holds) to why a startup may not be venture-backable.

But, true to form, Tecco is juggling multiple other ventures as she writes. She's still recording The Heart of Healthcare podcast alongside industry experts including Bessemer Ventures Partners investor Steve Kraus and Fenwick & West startup lawyer Michael Esquivel. In her classes at Columbia University and Harvard Medical School, she's teaching and learning from hopeful healthcare innovators. She's stopped angel investing, choosing instead to focus on the startups she's already backed, but she's also invested her personal wealth in top venture funds, including Oak HC/FT, Seven Seven Six, and Union Square Ventures.

While Tecco's Cofertility cofounder Lauren Makler oversees day-to-day operations at the startup as CEO, Tecco remains deeply involved with the company's strategy and fundraising efforts as a board member. And Rock Health is "still running Halle's game plan," Gross said.

Makler and Gross both called Tecco's ambition "relentless."

"If Halle has conviction in something, she does not look back," Makler said. "And even having gone through what Halle has gone through, her conviction, effort, and enthusiasm for what we're doing has never wavered."

Tecco doesn't regret the many years she spent speaking out about infertility. She still feels strongly about the twisted financial incentives in fertility care and the stigmas associated with assisted reproduction, even though she's not a patient anymore.

"I don't want to add anything, but I wouldn't want to take anything away. It is still such an important part of my story," she said.

Tecco's book, which she hopes to publish in late 2025, will be infused with her personal experiences, which Tecco said she understands people are interested in. But at its core, she hopes it'll be the "welcome guide" she never got for people interested in healthcare innovation, as motivating as it is practical.

"My goal is that readers close the book, and they're like, let's do this," she said.

• Luigi Mangione has been indicted in New York on a first-degree murder charge.
• Prosecutors say Mangione killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson "in furtherance of terrorism."
• Mangione's mother said killing Thompson was "something that she could see him doing," police said.

A Manhattan grand jury indicted Luigi Mangione on charges of first-degree murder, with prosecutors alleging he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson "in furtherance of terrorism."

Prosecutors have also accused Mangione of second-degree murder, as well as a slew of counts related to the possession of an illegal "ghost gun" made from 3D-printed parts.

Following a five-day manhunt, Mangione was arrested last week at a restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on gun and false ID charges.

Police say he killed Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4.

"This killing was intended to invoke terror," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, calling it a"brazen, targeted and premeditated shooting."

Prosecutors offered a detailed look at Mangione's movements Tuesday. They say he stayed at an Upper West Side hostel for more than a week, using a fake New Jersey ID, before carrying out the killing.

According to prosecutors, two of the shell casings for the bullets that killed Thompson had the words "DENY" and "DEPOSE" written on them. The word "DELAY" was written on a bullet found at the scene.

An arrest warrant previously obtained by Business Insider indicated that Mangione would be charged with second-degree murder along with four other charges related to illegal weapon possession. The first-degree murder charge reflects a more severe charge.

If Mangione, 26, is convicted of the first-degree murder charge, he could spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. The charge, with the intent to commit terrorism, refers to a killing that is "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population" or "influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion," according to the indictment.

Mangione has not yet entered a plea for any of the charges against him.

Even the minimum required sentence for first-degree murder, 25 to life, would mean Mangione would not see a parole officer until age 51.

The top charge could become a bargaining chip for Bragg, former Manhattan prosecutor Michael Bachner, who is now in private practice, told BI.

"Given the risk now of a maximum sentence of life without the possibility parole, that top terrorism count may induce the defendant to enter a plea, if one is offered," he said.

Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, lambasted the "ghoulish" online discourse valorizing Mangione for killing Thompson.

"Let me say this plainly — there is no heroism in what Luigi Mangione did," she said.

A Pennsylvania-based attorney for Mangione, an Ivy League graduate, has contested Mangione's extradition to Manhattan. At Tuesday's press conference, Bragg said he believed Mangione may change tack court proceedings Thursday and stop fighting extradition.

Over the weekend, Mangione hired Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an experienced New York-based criminal defense attorney who is married to and shares a law firm with Marc Agnifilo. Marc Agnifilo is representing Sean "Diddy" Combs in his criminal sex-trafficking case.

In an interview with CNN prior to taking on Mangione as a client, Friedman Agnifilio said the evidence was "overwhelming" that Mangione killed Thompson.

"It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did," she said.

Mangione left a robust online trail that went cold about six months before Thompson's killing. His mother filed a missing persons report in San Francisco in November, saying he had disappeared.

At Tuesday's press conference, Joe Kenny, the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, said the FBI contacted Mangione's mother on December 7, following a tip.

"She didn't indicate that it was her son in the photograph, but she said it might be something that she could see him doing," Kenny said.

• Luigi Mangione was charged last week over the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• The race is on to be the first to make a true crime show about him.
• Two documentaries and two TV specials have been announced so far.

True Crime has a new protagonist: Luigi Mangione.

Since Mangione was arrested and charged with murder last week over the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the media and public have been mining information about his past, including by scouring his social media accounts, to learn every detail about his life.

This week, news outlets reported that four documentaries about the 26-year-old and the shooting were in the works.

Thompson was shot and killed by a masked person outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4. Mangione was arrested on December 9 after being found in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and later faced local gun and forgery charges alongside the murder charge.

The shooting has had a huge cultural impact, sparking conversations about what is seen as the normalization of violence in the US and the state of the healthcare system. It seemed inevitable that true crime shows would follow at a time when the genre's popularity is at its height.

After pictures of Mangione emerged following the shooting, some X users joked that Ryan Murphy, who is behind true crime dramas including "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," would make a show about him. Others speculated which actors should portray Mangione.

Here's what we know about the upcoming projects.

An ABC special on Mangione includes a minute-by-minute breakdown of the shooting

ABC's "Manhunt: Luigi Mangione and the CEO Murder – A Special Edition of 20/20" will be the first show about him to air.

The hourlong special was announced on Tuesday and will air at 10 pm EST on Thursday, and will land on Hulu the next day.

According to ABC, the film will present a minute-by-minute investigation of the shooting, feature an exclusive audio recording of Mangione talking about his travels through Asia, and provide new details about the hunt to find him.

The special will also include an interview with his friend.

An Oscar-winning director's production company is making a documentary about Thompson's death

On Monday, Variety reported that entertainment production companies Anonymous Content and Jigsaw Productions were teaming up on a documentary about the shooting.

Variety reported the documentary will explore how people become killers and American citizens' frustration with the healthcare industry.

Jigsaw Productions is led by Alex Gibney, who in 2008 won an Oscar for best feature documentary for "Taxi to the Dark Side." Gibney is also working on a documentary about Elon Musk.

Emmy nominee Stephen Robert Morse's documentary will explore different perspectives on the shooting

Hours later, Variety reported that filmmaker Stephen Robert Morse, an Emmy-nominated producer, was making a separate documentary about Mangione.

Morse will work with Matt Cianfrani, a cinematographer, Hannah Ghorashi, an investigative journalist, and Eli Eisenstein, a filmmaker who went to Mangione's college, the University of Pennsylvania.

Morse told Variety that the doc will explore various perspectives surrounding the killing "while respecting the profound loss of life and its impact on everyone involved."

Morse told Deadline Monday that the film would be "memed" but encourage a deeper understanding of the case.

Last week, Morse Code Group, Morse's production company, set up an Instagram page and invited Thompson and Mangione's family, friends, and co-workers to share their stories.

In the caption of their first post, the company wrote: "If you have a story to share about your experience with Luigi Mangione, Brian Thompson, United Healthcare, or US health insurance generally, please get in touch with us!"

Warner Bros. Discovery's true crime network is working on 'Who Is Luigi Mangione?'

On Monday, Variety also reported that Investigation Discovery, Warner Bros. Discovery's true crime network, will release an hourlong special about the Mangione case in February 2025.

Variety said the project's working title is "Who Is Luigi Mangione?"

A representative for Investigation Discovery told Variety that the special will feature the TV host Dan Abrams, experts, industry insiders, and people close to Mangione to explore "his mental state" and "investigate the theories" surrounding his arrest.

Colin Angle, one of the co-founders of Roomba maker iRobot, is raising cash for a home robotics venture. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Angle’s new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is trying to raise $30 million. So far, it has raised $15 million from a group of eight investors. […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The hackers stole names, phone numbers, dates of birth and information related to health conditions, treatments and prescriptions.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• Trump says it's "terrible" that some admire Luigi Mangione, the UHC CEO shooting suspect.
• "That's a sickness, actually," Trump said.
• He speculated that some of the public reaction to the shooting was "fake news."

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday commented on the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the valorization of the suspect, Luigi Mangione.

"I think it's really terrible that some people seem to admire him," Trump told reporters at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

"That was a terrible thing. It was cold-blooded. Just a cold-blooded, horrible killing," Trump said of the killing.

While a broad swath of politicians have condemned the shooting, some progressive Democrats have also used the moment to take stock of Americans' frustrations with the healthcare industry, given that the public reaction to the shooting has not been universally negative.

"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told Business Insider last week. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."

Trump expressed bewilderment at the public reaction on Monday, speculating that some of it had been falsified.

"How people can like this guy, is… that's a sickness, actually," Trump said. "Maybe it's fake news, I don't know. It's hard to believe that can even be thought of, but it seems that there's a certain appetite for him. I don't get it."