RFK Jr. Plans Eight New USPSTF Members and a Late-August Meeting After 17 Months of Cancellations

Since RFK Jr. fired the USPSTF's two vice chairs in May 2026 and let four scheduled meetings lapse, the panel has been operating at half its normal size. HHS sent out a notice on Thursday confirming it intends to seat eight new members and allow the group to convene in late August, what would be its first meeting in 17 months, according to reporting by Notus, confirmed by HHS on Monday.

Who Is Picking the New Members

The selection process is being run primarily by Roger Klein, the political appointee who directs the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, along with his staff. Former task force vice chairs Esa Davis and John Wong, both dismissed by Kennedy in May, are NOT involved. Davis told Notus she reapplied for her old role but has not been contacted for an interview.

Mike Silverstein, who served as a third co-chair before his term ended in March, told Notus that Kennedy is "doing the same thing as he did for ACIP" — referring to the vaccine advisory committee Kennedy replaced last year with handpicked members, several of whom have associations with the anti-vaccine movement. Silverstein's read: it's the same playbook, executed more quietly.

"Kennedy is doing it in slow motion and he's doing it in a way that doesn't generate a big splash," Silverstein told Notus.

The Specialist Shift

HHS previewed a significant structural change in an April notice: instead of appointing primary care physicians trained to evaluate evidence across diverse patient populations, Klein is recruiting specialists. Medical specialties have lobbied for seats on the panel for years, according to Aaron Carroll, who leads the nonprofit AcademyHealth and spoke with Notus. Putting specialists in charge of population-wide screening recommendations raises conflict-of-interest concerns. As Carroll put it: "If you put a kidney doc on, that's great when you're focusing on a recommendation for kidney disease, but not expertise for anything else."

The arm of HHS that oversees the task force is also operating with roughly 70 percent fewer staff than before, according to Department of Personnel Management figures cited by Notus.

What the USPSTF Actually Does

Under the Affordable Care Act, a USPSTF grade of "A" or "B" obligates most insurers and state Medicaid expansion programs to cover the recommended screening at zero patient cost. Colonoscopies, mammograms, lung cancer screenings, depression screenings are all free for patients because of USPSTF recommendations, as Carroll explained to NPR.

Dr. Alex Krist, a former USPSTF chair and family physician, told NPR that primary care clinicians use task force recommendations more than 100 times a day. If the panel's credibility erodes the way ACIP's did after last year's overhaul, when some pediatricians and parents lost confidence in federal vaccine guidance, the downstream effect is on patient care, not just policy.

"I think that this is going to hurt people's health," Krist told NPR.

The Strongest Case for Kennedy's Changes

Kennedy's critics deserve a direct answer to the strongest argument on his side. The USPSTF has been legitimately criticized, including by Kennedy himself. Kennedy called the panel "lackadaisical" and "negligent for 20 years" in congressional testimony. If the group has genuinely failed to keep pace with evidence, a structural shakeup could produce faster, more comprehensive recommendations. Adding specialists is not inherently corrupt; it could broaden the panel's clinical lens.

The question is whether the means — political screening, gutted staff, 17 months without a meeting — are consistent with the stated goal of better, faster science. Former member John Ruiz, a psychologist whose term ended in January, told Notus: "Whoever ends up [on the task force] may or may not be qualified. But the process had been so transparent before. This feels more like a political process now."

What Comes Next

Kennedy also invited the two dismissed vice chairs, Davis and Wong, to reapply for their former roles, according to letters reviewed by NPR. Whether they will be considered in a process they have no hand in shaping is an open question. Davis's experience — reapplied with no callback — does not answer optimistically.

If HHS seats a full complement of eight new members and the panel convenes in late August as planned, the first real test will be whether the new membership's screening recommendations hold up to independent scientific scrutiny or whether they diverge in ways that track the ideological preferences of whoever ran the selection. The task force also faces a backlog of recommendations to consider, including on prostate cancer screening, weight loss counseling, cervical cancer screenings, perinatal depression, alcohol abuse, and fall prevention for the elderly, according to former members cited by Notus.