RFK Jr. terminates heads of preventive services task force amid overhaul

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quietly removed the two top leaders of a key preventive services panel last week as he seeks to overhaul its membership.

The US Preventive Services Task Force determines what preventive care – such as mammograms and colonoscopies – Americans can receive at no cost. But it has not met for more than a year, and half of the 16 seats are unfilled.

The unusual move comes as the administration is seeking new members for the task force, and its leaders would typically be involved in the vetting process. Their removal has raised concerns of political interference as Kennedy seeks to wield more influence over HHS’s panels of independent medical experts.

Drs. John Wong of Tufts Medical Center and Esa Davis of the University of Maryland School of Medicine received letters from Kennedy that said the action stemmed from a review of current appointments to task force. Wong and Davis served as chair and vice chair, respectively.

“The Department is taking this step to help protect the Task Force and preserve confidence in the continuity and durability of its work,” said the letter, which has been viewed by CNN.

The leaders were removed “to avoid uncertainty that could jeopardize the validity of future Task Force actions,” according to the letter, which did not specify what the risks are.

The appointment of the task force members was an issue in a legal challenge at the US Supreme Court last year in a case that could have upended the panel’s more recent recommendations. The justices ruled 6-3 that Kennedy and his predecessor in the Biden administration had the ability to name the experts who sit on the panel.

Asked for comment, an HHS spokesperson referred to the letters.

The terminations undermine the transparent, rigorous and apolitical way the task force has operated since its establishment in 1984, said Dr. Aaron Carroll, CEO of the nonprofit AcademyHealth, a national organization for health services and policy researchers. The panel’s value stems from thorough and nonpartisan review of scientific evidence, not from any particular set of conclusions, he said.

“That, again, is not how you build trust and not how you build consistency and a belief the system is functioning as it should,” Carroll said.

Adding specialists to panel

Kennedy is currently seeking nominations for the panel, with the new members expected to start serving in July. The deadline to apply is Saturday, and in their removal letters, Wong and Davis were invited to reapply.

But the secretary intends to change the makeup of the task force beyond primary care doctors. In a notice published last month in the Federal Register, HHS encouraged specialists such as anesthesiologists, cardiologists, oncologists, radiologists and obstetricians to consider serving.

The change has raised concerns among some former panel members and other experts who say specialists may not have the needed breadth of knowledge. The task force evaluates evidence across 92 topics, including cancer screening, behavioral counseling, chronic disease prevention and maternal health.

The task force recommends screenings for cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, sexually transmitted infections and other preventive care. Its work has a direct impact on millions of people’s wallets: Insurers must cover preventive services that get an A or B grade from the panel at no cost to patients, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

The task force’s shakeup comes after Kennedy overhauled the agency’s highest-profile vaccine advisory group, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, replaced all of the committee’s members last year.

The new panel voted to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns; placed restrictions on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox as well as measles, mumps and rubella; and took the unprecedented step of not universally recommending Covid-19 vaccinations, instead saying the choice should be based on conversations with a healthcare provider.

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