Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday appointed eight members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, reshaping the panel that decides which preventive medical services health insurers must cover without charge to patients.
The appointments mark the first time physician specialists, rather than only primary-care doctors, will serve on the specialised Health and Human Services task force. Five of the eight new members work in specialist fields including oncology, cardiology, gastroenterology and radiology. The task force has previously been made up of generalist clinicians working at the front end of patient care.
The change matters because the 16-member panel assesses evidence on preventive services. Its recommendations affect access for millions of Americans to routine cancer screening, HIV prevention and other forms of preventive care. It remains unclear how the new members may approach future coverage decisions or which services could be affected.
Kennedy named Seth Corey, a paediatric haematologist-oncologist at Cleveland Clinic, as the new chair. The other appointees are Patrick Hunter, a paediatrician at Pensacola Pediatrics in Florida; Ronald Karlsberg, a cardiologist and clinical professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles; and Venkatesh Murthy, a professor of preventive cardiology at the University of Michigan.
The new members also include Louis Wilson, a gastroenterologist at Wichita Falls Gastroenterology Associates in Texas; Dennis Wulfeck, a diagnostic radiologist at RadPartners MBB Radiology in Florida, where he has spent nearly three decades; and Goldie Stands-Over-Bull, a family medicine physician at Texas Native Health and an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe.
Stephen Parente, a health finance professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Management, was also appointed. He is the one new member who is not a physician.
Kennedy had previously criticised the task force as too "woke". He also dismissed several earlier members, including the former chair and vice chairs. The appointments follow more than a year of delays in the panel's work after those dismissals.
The American Medical Association said the new membership departs sharply from the task force's traditional makeup. Under past arrangements, its members were generalist clinicians whose work focused on care before a patient received a diagnosis. The new panel includes doctors whose clinical work is in specialised care following diagnosis, alongside primary-care physicians and a health finance professor.
The task force last met a year ago. It is uncertain when it will next convene with the newly appointed members, and there is no indication yet of specific policy changes they may pursue. It is also unknown how the remaining members appointed under the Biden administration may influence the direction of the reconstituted panel.
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