(Reuters) -A UnitedHealth shareholder proposed on Friday that the healthcare group should adopt a policy to require an independent board chair, a role now held by CEO Stephen Hemsley.

The Accountability Board, a nonprofit advocacy group and UnitedHealth’s shareholder, said the current structure would decrease the board’s “checks and balances by consolidating power.”

Hemsley took the CEO job after his predecessor Andrew Witty resigned abruptly in May. Hemsley served as the board chair since 2017.

“Now, a single person holds both roles — which is as far as it gets from the independent oversight shareholders so critically need,” the proposal says.

Matt Prescott, president of the Accountability Board, declined to disclose its stake in UnitedHealth but said it has at least $25,000 in the co

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