Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Inside Health Policy, in “USPSTF Taps New Chair, Vice Chair; Quiet on Potential Changes,” by Luke Zarzecki. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced a new chair and vice chair, bringing expertise in mental health, obesity and tobacco, as the Trump administration will soon need to nominate a new member to the task force—replacing one member whose term expires this year.
But as the administration continues to make deep-seated changes across HHS, it remains silent on whether it plans to do the same with the powerful task force that makes binding decisions on what preventative services private insurers must cover for free under the Affordable Care Act.
While the Trump administration recently decided to defend the USPSTF in a highly watched Supreme Court case challenging the task force's authority, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could still make changes to the task force's makeup to fit his Make America Healthy Again agenda. The plaintiffs in the case note the HHS secretary has the authority to fire members at will.
Richard Hughes, a health lawyer at Epstein, Becker and Green, told Inside Health Policy the process for changing or removing USPSTF members is up to Kennedy.
"In terms of process, because the statute does not specify any terms or procedures, it is governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Under FACA, the HHS secretary basically determines any process for adding or removing members, etc. I have never seen a detailed, publicly available policy from HHS. Basically, we can assume anything goes here," he said. …
