Groups Ask HHS Secretary to Protect Integrity of USPSTF

ACOI, alongside nearly 200 organizations, is urging Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to maintain the structure, membership, and processes of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to ensure that it can “continue to make unbiased, evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.” The request follows recent reports that Secretary Kennedy is considering terminating the terms of all the current 16 volunteer members.  

The USPSTF is tasked with making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services. Recommendations with an A or B grade under the Affordable Care Act must be offered to eligible patients without cost sharing. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Kennedy v. Braidwood, which verified the constitutionality of the USPSTF and reemphasized the authority for the HHS Secretary to appoint and remove Task Force members at will, it is critical that the integrity of the USPSTF be protected from political interference.