RFK Jr.'s plans for health panel spark "deep concerns" from medical group
The task force, also known as the USPSTF, is a panel of independent medical experts whose recommendations help guide insurance companies and doctors' decisions about a range of preventive health measures, like cancer and diabetes screenings as well as HIV and cholesterol drugs.
In a letter posted on Sunday, the AMA — the largest association of physicians in the U.S. — addressed Kennedy over a report published Friday in The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ story cited sources familiar with the matter as saying Kennedy plans to dismiss the task force members because he views them as too "woke."
"USPSTF plays a critical, non-partisan role in guiding physicians' efforts to prevent disease and improve the health of patients by helping to ensure access to evidence-based clinical preventive services," the AMA's letter said. "As such, we urge you to retain the previously appointed members of the USPSTF and commit to the long-standing process of regular meetings to ensure their important work can continue without interruption."
Doctors also have expressed concerns about the potential changes.
Infectious disease physician Dr. Shelley Kon shared she's "deeply alarmed" at the reported plans.
"The current members are volunteer experts in their field, vetted for conflicts of interest. As a physician, I rely on their expertise and recommendations when discussing preventive care with my patients in the clinic," Kon said in an emailed statement, adding she's especially concerned about the potential impact to safe and effective medication to prevent HIV.
"We have to insist that our guidelines are based on science, evidence-based medicine, and shared decision-making — not politics. Our nation's health depends on it," she said.
Dr. Thomas Lew, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and attending physician of hospital medicine at Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley, had similar concerns about preventative care.
"This will greatly damage all the work we've done in preventative care, making people sicker, and driving up costs and premiums," he said. "To put it mildly, this is extremely concerning — and doing the opposite of making America healthy."
In a statement to CBS News Friday, an HHS spokesperson said, "No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS' mandate to Make America Healthy Again."
The task force was created more than 40 years ago, but its work took on added significance after passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law requires health insurers and group health plans to provide preventive services that are recommended by the task force without imposing co-pays, deductibles or other cost-sharing charges on patients.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the structure of the task force, but ruled that its members are "inferior officers" that can be "removable at will" by the HHS secretary. As the case played out, nonprofit organizations warned the Supreme Court that eliminating cost-sharing for services like breast cancer screenings or HIV-prevention medications would dissuade patients from seeking medical care.
Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practice, also known as ACIP, a separate government panel of that makes vaccine recommendations. He later named eight new advisers, including several allies he has worked with closely over the years and some members with a history as vaccine critics.
Kennedy has also shared big plans to shake up medical journals in the country. The health secretary told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook he wants to create new journals and even stop the publication of NIH-funded research in traditional journals.
"We need to replicate studies, we need to publish raw data. We need to get away from the traditional journals, which are controlled by the pharmaceutical industry, and create our own journals, which we're going to do," Kennedy said.
In response to Kennedy's claim that the pharmaceutical industry controls traditional journals, Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, told LaPook, "that's incorrect."
Read the AMA's full letter below:
AMA Letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by CBSNews.com on Scribd
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