The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the independent panel of experts responsible for recommending preventative healthcare services covered by most private insurers, has not met to vote on new or updated guidelines in nearly a year, raising concerns about potential delays in crucial health screenings and counseling.
The task force, established in 1984, typically convenes three times annually – in March, July, and November – to review the latest scientific research and determine which preventative care should be accessible without cost-sharing to patients. Its last meeting was held in March 2025. The July and November sessions were canceled due to the government shutdown, and no meeting has been scheduled for March 2026.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that most private insurance plans cover services receiving an “A” or “B” grade from the USPSTF. This provision currently extends coverage to over 150 million Americans with private insurance, including 37 million children, as well as approximately 20 million individuals enrolled in Medicaid and 61 million on Medicare, according to a 2022 Department of Health and Human Services report.
Adding to the uncertainty, the panel is currently operating with a reduced membership. Five members’ terms expired at the end of 2025 and have not been filled, leaving the USPSTF with 11 members instead of its usual complement of 16. Dr. Alex Krist, former chair of the task force from 2020 to 2021, noted that several draft recommendations are currently pending, including updates to cervical cancer screening guidelines and recommendations for screening and counseling related to perinatal depression.
While the task force continues to meet virtually on a weekly basis, Dr. Krist explained that official votes on recommendations are typically reserved for the three annual in-person meetings. He estimates the task force typically issues between 20 and 25 recommendations each year, but only around five were published in the past year. “They’re very much lifesaving recommendations,” Krist said. “For clinicians, the task force is kind of our North Star on what we should do and not do for prevention.”
The USPSTF is administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The current situation unfolds as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has been actively reshaping other federal advisory groups. In June 2025, Kennedy replaced all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) has also experienced a reduction in the frequency of its public meetings.
Kennedy possesses the authority to appoint and dismiss members of the USPSTF. Reports from July 2025 indicated that Kennedy privately criticized the task force as being overly “woke.” Sources familiar with internal discussions told NBC News that Kennedy had considered removing all members of the panel. In response, the American Medical Association sent a letter to Kennedy on July 27, urging him to maintain the existing composition of the task force.
HHS has not responded to inquiries regarding potential changes to the task force or the scheduling of a March meeting. Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, emphasized the importance of maintaining the panel’s independence from political influence. “Like ACIP, the USPSTF was created to provide non-biased, science-based expert advice on an issue that should be governed by science,” Reiss said. “Their main job is to offer guidance to doctors. Politicizing the panel destroys that function. Doctors will, rightly, be less inclined to follow the guidance of an intentionally biased panel.”
The USPSTF has previously faced legal challenges. Several years ago, conservative groups filed a lawsuit against HHS regarding the panel’s “A” rating for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication used to prevent HIV. The case threatened the ACA’s preventative care mandate, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the federal government, upholding the requirement for insurers to cover services recommended by the task force.
Currently, the task force maintains 54 recommendations that insurance plans are required to cover, including biennial mammograms for women aged 40 and older to screen for breast cancer, anxiety screenings for children as young as eight, and the use of statins for certain adults aged 40 to 75 with heart disease risk factors. Dr. Robert Lawrence, the inaugural chair of the task force, highlighted the panel’s consideration of health disparities across different populations, including LGBTQ individuals and Black women, who experience disproportionately higher rates of maternal mortality. He expressed concern that this focus could be jeopardized under Kennedy’s leadership.
“Given that of RFK Jr.’s anti-science posturing with regard to the vaccine issue and with regard to a lot of other issues in HHS, I believe the same fate befalls the task force,” Lawrence said. He co-authored an opinion piece published in the Annals of Internal Medicine arguing that dismantling the task force would pose “an existential threat to clinical practice.”
Task force recommendations are typically reviewed every five years to incorporate new research findings. Without regular meetings, Lawrence warned, updates could be significantly delayed. The reduced size of the panel could further impede its ability to efficiently review evidence and issue new recommendations. “I kind of fear going back to the dark ages before there was evidence-based medicine,” he said.
