Latest news with #PreventiveServicesTaskForce
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. says cancer screenings are too 'woke' now. As an actual doctor, I disagree.
A 6-centimeter mass. These are the words that shattered my patient's heart, but ultimately gave her a chance at saving and prolonging her life. Weeks earlier, without any worries about her health, she had seen a doctor for a checkup. Following the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, her doctor found out she was a former smoker and ordered a scan. Lung cancer was found, which is how she ended up in my hospital for chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Without the task force guidelines, my patient's primary care doctor may not have ordered this scan, and her cancer may not have been caught before it spread to Stage 4, or it was uncurable. The task force has released screening recommendations for patients over the past 40 years that have caught infections, detected cancers and otherwise saved lives countless times. However, it is now reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering removing and replacing all 16 expert members of this task force for purely political and culture war reasons. This would be a disaster for public health. RFK Jr. thinks preventing curable disease is too 'woke' The Preventive Services Task Force is tasked with providing screening recommendations for finding diseases before they become deadly. These guidelines are evidence-based and updated frequently as new scientific studies are released. Primary care doctors rely on these as they approach which diagnostic tests are most impactful and highest yield for their patients. Insurance companies use the task force's recommendations to know what studies to cover. Their work is important and essential. But we'll be in danger if RFK Jr. wants to upend this institution. Opinion: RFK Jr. is an unserious man. But his misinformed vaccine policy will be deadly. He has already done it once. In June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a committee that makes recommendations on vaccine schedules, for reasons that made little sense. He replaced them with known vaccine skeptics, hampering both sound scientific work and public trust in the organization. This, by the way, at a time when measles cases in the U.S. are at their highest in 30 years. Now it's reported that Kennedy might make these removals within the Preventive Services Task Force because the members are too "woke.' Don't make America backward again in public health Keep in mind, these are individuals who are recommending things like cervical cancer screening is good, or look for post-partum depression in pregnant persons. Opinion: I'm a doctor. Trump's crusade against universities undermines the future of your health. These are sound recommendations that should be noncontroversial. What is woke in that? Some point to things like the word choice of 'persons' instead of 'women'? Don't be a snowflake, and get over yourself. These are important recommendations that are meant to reach all Americans. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. Even if he doesn't go through with this purge, RFK Jr. is instilling a distrust in our expert medical and scientific institutions. If he does go through with it, he will undermine the pillar of public health that is preventative services at the same time that another pillar, access to care for the vulnerable, has been hacked away at by the Medicaid cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill. Taking these actions will not make America healthy again. It'll make America backward again in public health, and backward in the fight against cancer and disease. We need to sound the alarm to stop all these actions that are harming our fellow Americans. Dr. Thomas K. Lew is an assistant clinical professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and an attending physician of Hospital Medicine at Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley. All expressed opinions are his own. Follow him on X: @ThomasLewMD You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kennedy is making a culture war out of cancer prevention | Opinion Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kennedy's move to cancel preventive health panel meeting raises alarm
If you've ever been given a free or low-cost test for lung, breast, colon or cervical cancer which caught a tumor, it's likely due to a panel of 16 doctors and public health experts who reviewed the evidence and determined that a screening could save your life. That's why anxiety is growing after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly postponed a meeting this week with the highly influential United States Preventive Services Task Force, a group of 16 independent volunteers that advise the agency about preventative health services and screenings, including mammograms, HIV prevention medications, recommending support for new moms to breastfeed and lifestyle interventions for heart disease. Health insurance plans are required to cover the task force's recommendations under the Affordable Care Act. The meeting, scheduled for July 10, was postponed without explanation. In an emailed statement, Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, declined to say why the meeting was canceled or whether it would be rescheduled. He did not respond to a follow-up request for comment. An HHS notice sent Monday afternoon to task force members said the agency 'looks forward to engaging with the task force to promote the health and well-being of the American people,' according to two people familiar with the task force meeting. Task force members were not given a reason for the canceled meeting or whether it would be rescheduled, said the two people interviewed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Many task force members, however, fear Kennedy's move could signal that he's gearing up to fire them and install new members, as he did with a separate advisory committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the sources said. Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of ACIP — which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, including for children — and replaced them with eight new members. The new panel includes well-known vaccine critics. 'If you look at how things played out with ACIP, this could be a warning signal,' one of the people said. The United States Preventive Services Task Force is a lesser known group that was first convened in 1984 during the Reagan administration. It includes physicians, nurses, pediatricians and public health experts. The task force plays an important role because the ACA , more commonly known as Obamacare, mandates that most private insurers provide the services that the group recommends to patients at no cost. The task force makes its recommendations using a grading scale. Under federal law, services that get an A or B grade but must be covered by insurance plans at no cost to patients. The advisory group has been subject to outrage for its past decisions, including from conservative groups over an 'A' recommendation to cover the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP. Its controversial decision against routine blood test screening for prostate cancer in 2008 has been linked to rising rates of advanced cases of the disease. The task force currently advises against PSA-screening for older men, saying that men ages 55 to 69 should talk with their doctors about the benefits and harms. The group usually updates its recommendations every five years after reviewing the latest science on preventive care. For example, in 2021, the task force updated its guidance on heart attack prevention, saying most adults shouldn't take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. Other recommendations from the task force include that all women begin breast cancer screening every other year starting at the age of 40, down from age 50. It also recommended that children and teens age 8 and up get screened for anxiety. Both have 'B' recommendations. The canceled meeting was set to discuss cardiovascular disease and prevention in adults and children, the people said. 'This institution proves vital,' said Arthur Caplan, the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. 'The task force provides one of the few independent evidence-based assessments of what ought to be covered, especially in the area of prevention, which Kennedy has made a priority.' 'Postponing the meeting makes me very nervous,' Caplan added. As health secretary, Kennedy does have the authority to remove and appoint new members of the committee, said Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, a health policy research group. That authority was actually a factor in the Supreme Court's decision last month to uphold the Affordable Care Act provision that requires insurers to cover certain preventive services for free. The court agreed with the Trump administration that the task force members were 'inferior officers,' Kates said, because their work was directed and supervised by Kennedy. 'The Supreme Court basically ruled that the [health] secretary has the power to appoint members and remove them at will,' Kates said. 'So it basically affirms the argument that the secretary has the ultimate authority over the panel.' It's unclear which areas of health care Kennedy might target by shaking up the panel. PrEP, the HIV prevention pill, is 'one to watch,' Kates said, because the Trump administration has already moved to restrict access to the medication in other countries. Caplan said Kennedy could direct the task force to look into topics he's interested in, such as nutrition or processed foods. Health groups immediately pushed back when news broke that Kennedy postponed the meeting. On Wednesday, a letter signed by more than 100 public health groups — including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics — urged U.S. lawmakers to 'defend the task force's integrity.' The letter was led by AcademyHealth, a group representing health researchers. This article was originally published on
Forbes
07-07-2025
- Health
- Forbes
How RFK Jr. Could Disrupt Insurance Coverage Of Preventive Healthcare
The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, includes provisions that guarantee a number of preventive ... More healthcare services at no cost to patients. In a recently decided case, the Supreme Court upheld the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to appoint members of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, rather than requiring presidential nomination and corresponding Senate confirmation hearings and a vote. The Task Force is tasked with making key recommendations on which preventive healthcare services and technologies must be covered by health insurers by law. While this ruling preserves the current structure of the Task Force and ensures that its recommendations remain valid, it offers HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broad latitude to reshape what's covered as he can hire and fire the expert panel, which in turn can lead to modified guidance. In the case before the court, the lead plaintiff, Braidwood Management, objected to the Affordable Care Act's requirement to cover HIV prevention medications, arguing that this mandate violated its religious beliefs. Braidwood further maintained that the Task Force is unconstitutional, specifically with regard to the procedure used to appoint members. The Task Force is in charge of recommending preventive healthcare services and technologies that ought to be covered by insurers, such as cancer screenings, cholesterol medications and HIV prevention drugs or pre-exposure prophylaxis, at no cost to patients. PrEP is a highly effective preventive medication for people who do not have HIV but are at high risk of exposure through sexual contact or injection drug use. It can be taken as a daily pill or as an injectable every two or six months. Under the ACA, PrEP products approved by the Food and Drug Administration must be reimbursed by insurers without any out-of-pocket charges to patients for the medications, clinic visits or laboratory tests. For the uninsured, there are programs available that can provide PrEP at reduced costs or for free. The Task Force's expert panel evaluates the best available scientific evidence to figure out whether a preventive health intervention is beneficial to patients. In the case of PrEP, soon after the first product was approved more than a decade ago, the Task Force recommended its coverage based on a review of the data submitted to the FDA. The Supreme Court ruled that the present structure of the Task Force is constitutional. As such, its decision reaffirms the ability of Kennedy to appoint and supervise officers under the aegis of the Department of HHS. But in light of Kennedy's evident distrust of established expertise and traditional scientific institutions in government decision-making, this could give pause. Besides holding vaccine-skeptic views, Kennedy has questioned whether HIV is the sole cause of AIDS, advocated on behalf of lifting of raw milk restrictions and removing flouride from drinking water. Challenging what he calls 'orthodoxies,' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly made statements suggesting a skeptical viewpoint with respect to sole reliance on experts in making policy decisions, especially in the realm of public health. During an interview with Fox News, Kennedy said that 'trusting the experts is not a function of science or democracy, but of totalitarianism and religion.' What happened last month at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, when the entire panel of experts was ousted and replaced, could offer clues as to how Kennedy may act, given that he has a similar authority to appoint and remove Task Force members. And this extends to his right to review and block their guidance before it takes effect. ACIP provides recommendations on vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Positive advice for a vaccine implies health insurers must cover it free of charge. Kennedy oversees ACIP and can sack and appoint members. Kennedy dismissed the entire 17-member ACIP and appointed seven members to the advisory committee, several of whom have no vaccine or immunology pedigree while others include like-minded vaccine skeptics. It's unknown what changes the newly formed committee will recommend regarding scheduling of standard vaccinations. But it stands to reason that scheduling could be modified. Independently of ACIP, Kennedy has already made changes to COVID-19 vaccine policy, no longer recommending the vaccine to health children and pregnant women. STAT News reports that a lawsuit filed on July 7th alleges that 'HHS changed federal guidance outside of established processes, undermining trust.' And, earlier this year, another agency under Kennedy's control, the National Institutes of Health, dismantled the entire National Cancer Institute's Board of Scientific Advisors, which had 28 members. If something similar were to happen to the Task Force as what occurred to ACIP, experts suggest it could undermine the public and scientific community's trust in the panel and its recommendations. Moreover, it could result in restrictions in insurance coverage of certain preventive interventions.
Medscape
10-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Colonoscopy Screening Effective in 45- to 49-Year-Olds
Screening colonoscopies in 45- to 49-year-olds yield similar rates of cancer and lesions as in 50- to 54-year-olds, according to a new analysis. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Northern California sought to compare yields between the two age groups to assess how a change in guidance in 2021 urging screening in the younger cohort was borne out in a real-world setting. The researchers published their findings in JAMA , concluding that the results supported screening colonoscopy in 45- to 49-year-olds. The study compared 4380 individuals aged 45-49 years, with 7651 who were aged 50-54. All of them underwent their first colonoscopy during 2021 to 2024. Thirty-five percent of the younger group and 40% of the older group had any adenoma. About 4% of each group had an advanced adenoma, 10% had any sessile serrated lesion, a little under 2% had an advanced serrated lesion, and 0.1% in each group had colorectal cancer. There were no significant differences in neoplasia prevalence between the groups by sex. The authors did note that the study group included more Asian individuals (30%) than in the general population. Swati G. Patel, MD, MS, associate professor of medicine, at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Denver, said the Kaiser study is important because its data was aggregated after the US Preventive Services Task Force lowered the screening age in 2021. The Kaiser research 'validates the initial studies' done to support that recommendation and the 2022 consensus statement by the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, which also advocated screening in 45- to 49-year-olds. Even though the new JAMA study found a similar rate of cancers and precursor lesions as in previous trials, it provides 'reinforcement of the rationale for decreasing the screening age,' Patel, the lead author on the consensus statement, told Medscape Medical News . The Kaiser research is 'really powerful information,' she said. 'It certainly validates our current guidance to start screening for colorectal cancer at age 45,' said Audrey Calderwood, MD, professor of medicine, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth, New Hampshire. The Kaiser data provides granular information to share with younger patients who might think that they don't need screening because they are healthy and don't have symptoms, said Calderwood, also director of the Comprehensive Gastroenterology Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Colon cancer rates for Americans under age 50 have been steadily rising for the past decade, hitting about 10 cases per 100,000 in 2022, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In 2023, about 73% of eligible 50- to 75-year-olds received colorectal cancer screening based on the most recent guidelines, according to the NCI. But screening rates in the under-50 age group are much lower. Researchers estimated in a study that only about 34.5% of those aged 45-49 received colorectal cancer screening, which included colonoscopy, stool-based tests, and CT colonography. Patel said that estimate is 'spot on' in terms of other estimates. 'I think there's a perception that it's a cancer of older adults and that young healthy people don't need to worry about it,' she said, adding that getting the word out to younger Americans is a 'PR challenge,' in part because of squeamishness about discussing anything to do with stool and changes in how they access information. Calderwood agreed. Younger people 'aren't chatting to their friends about' colon cancer screening the way they might about mammography, said Calderwood. Both she and Patel noted that educating the public was an ongoing project, but that a physician's recommendation was key. Patel said she hoped that data provided in the Kaiser study might help 'dismantle the systemic skepticism around decreasing the age recommendation' for screening. Calderwood and Patel reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Wall Street Journal
01-06-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
I'm 88 and Prospering Thanks to Routine PSAs
Regarding Allysia Finley's column 'Biden's Prostate Cancer and the Tyranny of the Experts' (Life Science, May 27): When I was 83, I was worked up thoroughly for a sudden rise in my routine PSA. Regular digital exam and special biopsy led to diagnosis of invasive but confined prostate cancer. Even though I had no symptoms of cancer, and knowing the arguments, I elected to have anti-gonadal and radiotherapy treatments. Whatever complications ensued were managed, and I have enjoyed more than five normal years with no PSA elevation. Without this intervention—and my defying the Preventive Services Task Force guidance—I might have been in the former president's present medical situation. I am still working as a physician, feeling useful and enjoying all there is to enjoy with the functional imperfections of being 88. One swallow doesn't make a summer but one contrary example can defy a rule.
