Kennedy to oust care task force, WSJ reports; HHS says no decision yet
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said on Friday that Kennedy had not yet made a decision regarding the 16-member U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
"No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS' mandate to Make America Healthy Again," the HHS spokesperson said.
The Journal said Kennedy planned to dismiss all 16 panel members in what would be the latest in a series of far-reaching actions by Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, to reshape U.S. regulation of vaccines, food and medicine.
In June he fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of vaccine experts, replacing them with seven handpicked members, including known vaccine skeptics.
The USPSTF includes medical experts serving staggered four-year terms on a volunteer basis. Its role in choosing what services will be covered by insurers was established under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The 40-year-old group, whose recommendations provide guidance to doctors, looks at everything from routine breast cancer screening to drugs to prevent HIV infection.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld the constitution of the task force and ruled in favor of its recommendation to cover preventive care.
Though made up of an independent group of volunteer experts, members are selected by the health secretary without Senate confirmation and it relies on support from the department's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
A group of 104 health organizations, opens new tab, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in early July sent a letter to Congressional health committees, urging them "to protect the integrity" of the task force.
The task force has been criticized by some conservatives, opens new tab as too left-leaning.
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Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Kennedy could soon reconstruct US preventive care panel, STAT News reports
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could imminently overhaul a key federal advisory panel that recommends which preventive services insurers must pay for, health and medical news website STAT News reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the plans. Federal health officials are vetting new members for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the report said. It also cited David Mansdoerfer, who advises a group allied with Kennedy, as saying he knew people being considered for the panel but that he declined to name them. Mansdoerfer, who served during President Donald Trump's first administration as deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, later told Reuters that he knew "a couple" of those being considered. He added that he was not actively involved in the process, which he said could take from a few weeks to two or three months. The Office of the White House Liaison at HHS is in charge of the vetting, said Mansdoerfer, now the chief strategy adviser to the Independent Medical Alliance, a group of physicians allied with Kennedy. This was also the case with candidates for advisory committees during his time at the department, he said. Asked if the people he knew of who were under consideration were physicians, Mansdoerfer said they were all clinical health professionals. He had earlier told STAT that the existing panel was "MD heavy" and that the reorganized one was likely to include other kinds of healthcare providers. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy planned to remove all of the panel's 16 members. An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy had not yet made a decision. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force includes medical experts serving staggered four-year terms on a volunteer basis. Its role in choosing what services will be covered by insurers was established under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The 40-year-old group, whose recommendations provide guidance to doctors, looks at everything from routine screenings for breast cancer to drugs to prevent HIV infection.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Wife of Marine Corps veteran released from ICE custody after advocacy from GOP Senator's office
A Marine Corps veteran's wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump 's hardline immigration crackdown. Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy's office put in a request Friday for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children. Kennedy's constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife's release and thanked him for his military service. 'I am so happy for you and your family,' Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'God is truly great!' Kennedy's office proved 'instrumental' in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family's attorney. Kennedy's office did not provide further comment. Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans. Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump's immigration policies. 'Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,' Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he criticized the Trump administration for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man. The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be 'illegally' in the country. An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family's attorney reached out to Kennedy's office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May. Tate received Paola Clouatre's court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange. On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre's deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy's office, Tate said she 'sent the request to release' Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge's motion with the agency, emails show. In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it 'continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case' and had received the judge's decision from Kennedy's office 'for consideration." The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody. 'We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers," Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us." Back with her children Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application. She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre's mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre's release. Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would "actually look at the circumstances' before detaining people like his wife. 'It shouldn't just be like a blanket 'Oh, they're illegal, throw them in ICE detention.'' Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again. 'I was feeling bad,' she said of detention. 'I was feeling like I failed my kids.' It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre's immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said. For now, she's wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city's famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they'll finally get that chance again: 'We're going to make that day up.' ___
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Man with cancer died after delay in treatment
A coroner has written to a health board after delays to a cancer patient's treatment breached the Suspected Cancer Pathway time limit Wynne Tatchell died on 9 April 2024 at Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend. An inquest into Mr Tatchell's death found he died from the natural cause of pneumonia having undergone treatment for squamous cell carcinoma which had returned at the time of Coroner Aled Gruffydd is calling for answers about delays to staging and the treatment phase of his care. In a Prevention of Future Death's report, Coroner Aled Gruffydd said that the "delay in providing treatment more than minimally contributed" to his death. The coroner was told Mr Tatchell was referred to Morriston Hospital on 12 April 2023 by his dentist following the discovery of an ulcer in the lower left jaw. The referral was classed as an urgent suspected cancer (USC) and he was seen at the outpatients clinic on 28 April was suspected he had a squamous cell carcinoma but it needed to be confirmed by a biopsy, which took place on 18 May 2023, with the results returning on 30 May as a moderately differentiated squamous cell Tatchell returned to hospital again on 19 and 29 June for CT and MRI scans. His care was transferred when he saw a consultant on 6 July and 27 July to discuss treatments, which would consist of surgery and due to theatre capacity he did not undergo surgery until 13 week prior to the surgery, it was discovered Mr Tatchell's cancer had spread and was area was operated on but by February 2024 and with Mr Tatchell complaining of pain in his neck, specialists found the cancer had was readmitted to hospital on 8 March and subsequently died one month later. Writing to the chief executive of Swansea Bay Health Board, Mr Gruffydd concluded that "the delay in providing treatment more than minimally contributed to the deceased's death".The Suspected Cancer Pathway, introduced in Wales in 2019, required a suspected cancer to be diagnosed and staged within 31 calendar days of the date of referral. It also states that for treatment to commence within 62 calendar days from the date of referral. "In this case the diagnostic and staging phase was completed in 97 days from the date of referral and treatment commenced within 144 days of the date of treatment." Mr Gruffydd said that since then there had been evidence of improvement in theatre capacity and the addition of a consultant maxillofacial oncological surgeon appointed. However, he added that in May 2025, two associate medical directors expressed concern to the clinical lead for radiology that delays to staging scans were causing unnecessary risk in aggressive cancers that were at risk of progression and Gruffydd said he was concerned that delays in staging scans were allowing such cancers to progress to the point that they are "unresectable, resulting in poor prognosis for patients and reducing survivability rates and life expectancy".Swansea Bay Health Board has been asked to comment.
