Kennedy moves to revive preventive services panel with new members, after months of vacancies

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the influential expert panel that assesses evidence behind preventive medical services. Five of the appointees are medical specialists in fields such as gastroenterology and oncology — a major departure from the panel's traditional makeup of generalist clinicians — and another is a finance professor with health insurance expertise. In a Fox News opinion piece, Kennedy defended appointing specialists, arguing "preventive medicine does not stop at the boundaries of any one discipline" and citing cancer detection, cardiovascular disease, medical imaging, pediatric care, diagnostic technologies, and chronic disease as areas where specialized knowledge sharpens evidence evaluation. He also noted that eight members selected during the Biden administration remain on the panel.

The USPSTF carries significant power: its recommendations determine which preventive services health insurers are required to cover, which is why Americans can get screening colonoscopies and HIV-prevention drugs at no cost. But the 16-person panel has been largely defunct since President Trump and Kennedy took power — it hasn't met in more than a year after Kennedy canceled its meetings, and the most recent news on its website dates to August 2025. Before the pause, the group had signaled work on recommendations for breast cancer genetic screening, pediatric autism disorder screening, and cervical cancer screening, though its future focus remains unclear.

The task force also relies on support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a small HHS division heavily hit by U.S. DOGE Service-driven cuts — OPM figures show it fell from nearly 300 employees in 2024 to 84 in 2026. Katherine Hempstead of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation told STAT that "the infrastructure that provides them their reviews to provide evidence-based recommendation is not as secure as it once was." The American Medical Association called the new slate a "significant departure from the Task Force's traditional membership," saying a strong primary care voice must remain central. Aaron Carroll, president and CEO of AcademyHealth, added: "The task force is built around people who deliver preventative care, not people who deliver care after a positive test."