Overview
- On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, HHS named eight new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and installed Seth Corey as the sole chair, bringing the panel to 16 members.
- The task force issues evidence-based grades that require most private insurers and many Medicaid expansion programs to cover services rated A or B without cost-sharing, so membership shapes access to screenings and prevention.
- The new appointees lean toward specialists such as a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, cardiologists and a radiologist, a shift from the primary-care focus that has long characterized the panel.
- The personnel changes follow earlier removals of task force leaders, interviews conducted by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality staff, and a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the HHS secretary’s authority over these appointments.
- Medical groups have raised concerns about qualifications, process and politicization and pointed to specific appointee records such as Patrick Hunter’s 2022 Florida Board of Medicine vote restricting gender-affirming care for minors as a focal point for debate.