HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed eight new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, bringing the influential preventive care panel to 16 members.
Mr. Kennedy made the appointments Sept. 17 through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The eight join eight members currently serving on the volunteer panel of prevention and evidence-based medicine experts.
The task force carries outsized weight for health system and payer leaders: preventive services that the panel grades “A” or “B” must be covered by most private insurers without cost-sharing under the ACA. Its composition effectively shapes which screenings and preventive services patients can get at no cost.
The task force has advised the federal government on preventive health matters since 1984. Since 2010, the panel has determined about 100 guidelines for screenings, counseling and preventive medication that insurers are required to cover at no cost to patients. This includes services such as screening for cancer, anxiety and depression, and preventive services for cardiovascular disease.
Seth Corey, MD, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Cleveland Clinic, will chair the task force. The other seven appointees are:
- Patrick Hunter, MD, a pediatrician at Pensacola (Fla.) Pediatrics and member of the Florida State Board of Medicine
- Ronald Karlsberg, MD, a clinical professor of medicine at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Smidt Heart Institute
- Venkatesh Murthy, MD, PhD, professor of preventive cardiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
- Stephen Parente, PhD, a health finance professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis
- Goldie Stands-Over-Bull, MD, lead family medicine physician at Texas Native Health in Dallas
- Louis Wilson, MD, a gastroenterologist and managing partner at Wichita Falls (Texas) Gastroenterology Associates
- Dennis Wulfeck, MD, a diagnostic radiologist and president of the practice board at Radiology Partners’ MBB Radiology in Jacksonville, Fla.
“We are strengthening the Task Force to ensure it asks hard questions, follows the evidence wherever it leads, and maintains the highest standards of scientific integrity,” Mr. Kennedy said.
The appointments follow Mr. Kennedy’s move earlier this year to dismiss task force leadership, part of a broader overhaul of the panel. The Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Braidwood affirmed the HHS Secretary’s authority over the task force and its membership. The American Medical Association has voiced concerns over Mr. Kennedy’s plans to remake the 16-person panel.
“The composition of this new slate represents a significant departure from the Task Force’s traditional membership,” the AMA said Sept. 17. “We believe maintaining a strong primary care voice must remain central to its work. As the USPSTF moves forward, its recommendations must continue to be based on a transparent, rigorous, independent scientific process and informed by the perspective of physicians who deliver preventive care to patients every day. This is essential for ensuring that task force recommendations are trusted by clinicians and followed by patients.”
