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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the two doctors who led the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel that helps determine when insurance plans must provide free preventive screening for millions of Americans, the Associated Press reported. The terminations were effective immediately, according to letters dated May 11 that Kennedy sent to the two task force doctors.
Kennedy notified Dr. John Wong and Dr. Esa Davis that their appointments were being terminated before the end of their multiyear terms. The letters also encouraged them to reapply for roles on the panel, according to the AP account.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, created in the 1980s, is made up of experts who evaluate the latest evidence behind a wide range of prevention tools. The panel reviews research on topics including depression screenings and the use of statins to help prevent heart attacks, and it assigns letter grades that reflect the strength of the science.
Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must cover preventive services that receive an “A” or “B” grade without requiring a co-pay. That linkage ties the task force’s recommendations directly to what many patients experience at the point of care.
Over the past year, Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services largely sidelined the task force, postponing scheduled public meetings. The postponements left some expected updates, including on cervical cancer screening and other topics such as maternal depression, in limbo.
In the letters, Kennedy did not provide an explanation that made the reason for the firings clear. The AP reported that Kennedy wrote that Wong and Davis had advanced the task force’s work “to improve the health of Americans,” and that he was reviewing task force appointments “to ensure clarity, continuity and confidence” in HHS oversight.
The firings were first reported by The New York Times, according to the AP. An HHS spokesman did not respond to questions from reporters about why the two doctors were ousted.
Kennedy has previously described changes to the task force, telling lawmakers last month that he was reforming it and calling it “lackadaisical.” He said the changes were intended to make the panel meet more frequently and to add “transparency,” while the task force itself holds public meetings, opens draft guidelines to public comment before finalizing them, and publishes the scientific evidence that supports its recommendations.
Some health advocates had warned that Kennedy might replace the expert panel with less experienced political appointees, similar to actions he took involving other advisory bodies. Former task force chairman Dr. Michael Silverstein, a pediatrician, said the lack of access to the task force’s final cervical cancer screening update and steps to update recommendations about maternal depression reflected government interference, describing it as “a level of government intrusion into scientific processes that I’ve not experienced in my 10 years on the task force.”
Aaron Carroll of the nonpartisan AcademyHealth said the panel is designed with staggered terms so that health secretaries can regularly appoint new members and make their mark without upending the task force’s structure. The immediate departures announced May 11 follow that pattern of appointments, but they also come after a year during which scheduled public meetings were delayed.