US Health Secretary Kennedy Jr. adds eight new members to key health committee

By Sriparna Roy

Sept 17 (Reuters) – US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday named eight new members to the advisory panel that decides which preventive medical care, such as routine cancer screening or HIV prevention, should be provided at no cost under health insurance plans.

The Preventive Services Task Force, ​which typically holds three annual meetings and has 16 members, last met a year ago.

“The composition of this new slate represents a significant departure from the Task Force’s traditional membership. We believe maintaining a strong primary care voice must remain central to its work,” said Willie Underwood, president of the American Medical Association.

The AMA added that recommendations should continue to be based on a transparent, rigorous and independent scientific process, while incorporating the perspectives of physicians who provide preventive care.

This would be essential to maintaining clinicians’ trust in the task force and encouraging patients to follow its recommendations, it said. 

Kennedy Jr. has reshaped several federal health advisory bodies, including the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, replacing its members after dismissing the entire panel last year.

A US Supreme Court decision affirmed Kennedy Jr.’s authority over the preventive care committee last June. The panel’s November meeting following the judgment did not take place due to a government shutdown in 2025. A meeting in March was also postponed.

This May, Kennedy Jr. removed the chair and vice chair of the influential task force. 

“The USPSTF has important work ahead to ensure critical recommendations catch up with the latest science so that patients can access lifesaving, preventive services like cancer screenings,” said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Evercore ISI analysts said the new appointments provided “incremental confidence” that the task force was moving forward and that more updates could be expected in the near future.

The panel’s recommendations are a key catalyst for cancer screening tests such as Guardant Health’s Shield blood test, the analysts added.

The US Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment on the date of the panel’s next meeting when contacted by Reuters.

The new members include pediatric hematologist-oncologist Seth Corey, pediatrician Patrick Hunter and cardiovascular expert Ronald Karlsberg. Stephen Parente, who works in health finance, has also joined the panel.

Professor of preventive cardiology Venkatesh Murthy, family medicine physician Goldie Stands-Over-Bull, Louis Wilson, a gastroenterology specialist, and Dennis Wulfeck, a diagnostic radiologist, were also named members.

Comprising an independent group of volunteer experts, the panel relies on support from the Department of Health ​and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare ​Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Meanwhile, Dr. Aaron Carroll, chief executive at AcademyHealth, an association of health researchers and policy analysts, said that while reconstituting the task force was a necessary step, “putting people back in the chairs doesn’t rebuild the evidence system they need to do their job.”

Carroll noted that the AHRQ has lost 80% of its workforce and terminated more than 150 research grants relevant to health care delivery and preventive services. 

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy, Mrinalika Roy and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Jonathan Ananda)