RFK Jr. fires leaders of panel that sets insurance preventive-care rules

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The Trump administration has fired the two doctors who led the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel that helps determine when many insurance plans must cover preventive health services without patient co-pays, including screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent letters dated May 11 to the two chairs, notifying them that their appointments were being terminated immediately and ahead of the end of their multiyear terms, the Associated Press reported.

In its account, the AP said the letters did not spell out why Dr. John Wong and Esa Davis were removed. Kennedy’s letters instead praised the “leadership, contributions and expertise” that the doctors provided to advance the task force’s work “to improve the health of Americans,” and he encouraged them to reapply, the AP reported.

The AP also said the Department of Health and Human Services had already largely sidelined the task force, indefinitely postponing scheduled public meetings over the past year. The postponements meant some long-expected updates, including updates involving cervical cancer screenings and other topics, remained in limbo, according to the report.

The preventive-services task force, first created in the 1980s, is designed to scrutinize evidence behind a wide range of disease-prevention tools. The panel issues updates using letter grades that reflect the strength of the science, the AP reported, and under the Affordable Care Act most insurance plans generally must cover preventive services assigned an “A” or “B” grade without requiring a co-pay.

Kennedy’s letters were first reported by The New York Times. An HHS spokesman did not respond to questions from the AP about why the two chairs were fired.

Kennedy had told lawmakers last month that he was reforming the task force, calling it “lackadaisical,” and describing plans for it to meet more frequently with what he said would be “for the first time, transparency.” The AP said the panel traditionally holds public meetings, opens its draft guidelines to public comment before finalizing them, and publishes the scientific evidence behind its recommendations.

Some health advocates had previously worried that Kennedy was preparing to replace the expert panel with less experienced political appointees, as he had done with a vaccine advisory committee. Over the past year, the AP said, the task force had not been allowed to publish a final update to the cervical cancer screening guideline or to take steps to update recommendations about maternal depression.

Former task force chairman Dr. Michael Silverstein, described by the AP as a pediatrician, said, “This is a level of government intrusion into scientific processes that I’ve not experienced in my 10 years on the task force.” He made the comment in the context of the task force’s inability to move forward on updates.

Aaron Carroll of the nonpartisan health policy group AcademyHealth also said the panel has staggered terms so that health secretaries can regularly appoint new members without upending the task force, according to the AP.