RFK Jr. cancels USPSTF meeting

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has postponed a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that was scheduled for earlier this month to discuss healthy diet, physical activity, and other steps to prevent cardiovascular disease, according to sources who spoke to Axios and MedPage Today, as well as an email obtained by STAT.

USPSTF makes recommendations for services that insurers are required to cover fully under the Affordable Care Act. The task force was the subject of a lawsuit that the Supreme Court ruled on last month, upholding the structure of the task force in a case regarding coverage of HIV prevention drugs.

Last week, HHS' Immediate Office of the Secretary sent a letter to USPSTF members saying the task force's meeting was postponed, and that HHS looks forward to engaging with the task force in the future to promote health and well-being.

The letter did not cite a reason for canceling the meeting. However, Aaron Carroll, president and CEO of AcademyHealth, said the sudden cancellation of USPSTF's meeting "mirrors actions that have been take elsewhere in the last few weeks or months, with meetings canceled, independent experts sidelined, and decisions potentially shaped more by ideology instead of evidence."

(Goldman, Axios, 7/9; Cirruzzo, STAT+ [subscription required], 7/9; Robertson, MedPage Today, 7/9)

US drops charges against plastic surgeon who sold fake COVID-19 vaccination cards

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed charges against Michael Kirk Moore Jr., a plastic surgeon who was accused in 2023 of selling fake COVID-19 vaccine cards for $50 each, according to a social media post from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

"Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so," Bondi wrote. "He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today."

When charges were filed in 2023, the U.S. attorney's office in Utah said that Moore, a board-certified surgeon in the Salt Lake City area, had sold hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccine cards between May 2021 and September 2022 in exchange for cash payments or donations to an unspecified charity. Moore was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and two other charges.

Prosecutors alleged that Moore and others destroyed government-issued COVID-19 vaccines, noting that many child patients were given saline shots instead of vaccine doses at the request of their parents. The lawsuit said that Moore and others sold enough of the fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to equal 1,937 doses of the vaccine.

In the motion to dismiss, acting U.S. attorney in Utah Felice John Viti said that dropping the case was "in the interests of justice." Lawyers for Moore said in a statement that it was "the right decision and the just one" to drop the case.

In April, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Moore deserved a "medal for his courage" while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said last week she was asking DOJ to drop charges against Moore calling him "a hero, not a criminal."

(Bigg, New York Times, 7/13)

HHS rescinds policy allowing undocumented immigrants access to certain federal health benefits

HHS last week announced it would rescind a 1998 interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) that allowed undocumented immigrants to access services like community health centers and Head Start.

PRWORA, which was passed in 1996, restricted benefits to undocumented immigrants and many legal immigrants during their first years in the United States, but exemptions allowed for states to extend benefits to undocumented immigrants, including emergency Medicaid care, immunizations, disaster relief, and certain housing and nutrition programs. Benefits could also be extended to immigrants through state or local funds.

HHS rescinded its interpretation of PRWORA and said its new interpretation "reverses outdated exclusions" from the bill's language.

Head Start, health center programs, health workforce programs, substance use programs, and others will no longer be exempted from PRWORA's restrictions. HHS' new interpretation immediately went into effect upon being published in the Federal Register, though there will be a 30-day comment period.

"For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement. "Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people."

Advocates argued the move will cut access to basic healthcare provided by federally funded clinics and ultimately result in worse health outcomes among not just undocumented people but also their children, who often are legal citizens by birth. The policy could also affect immigrants authorized to be in the United States like asylees, refugees, and children covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. People with work or student visas, temporary protected status, or employment authorization could also be affected.

(Cueto, STAT+ [subscription required], 7/11; Choi, The Hill, 7/10; Tong, Fierce Healthcare, 7/10)

"For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement. "Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people."

Advocates argued the move will cut access to basic healthcare provided by federally funded clinics and ultimately result in worse health outcomes among not just undocumented people but also their children, who often are legal citizens by birth. The policy could also affect immigrants authorized to be in the United States like asylees, refugees, and children covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. People with work or student visas, temporary protected status, or employment authorization could also be affected.

(Cueto, STAT+ [subscription required], 7/11; Choi, The Hill, 7/10; Tong, Fierce Healthcare, 7/10)

DOJ subpoenas providers over youth gender-related care

DOJ has issued subpoenas demanding patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals providing gender-related treatments to minors. While additional details on the subpoenas and their recipients weren't immediately available, DOJ said the investigations include healthcare fraud and false statements.

"Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice," said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission held a workshop on "unfair or deceptive trade practices" in gender-affirming care for children, at which Chad Mizelle, chief of staff at DOJ, suggested that some healthcare providers had committed fraud in providing gender-affirming care to children.

"You cannot lie to [consumers] to get them to buy your products, use your services," Mizelle said. "You cannot commit fraud. This is true in providing medical services, but also more generally. There's no doubt in my mind, based not only on what we've heard here today, but just looking around with our own eyes, that the industry that is formed around providing gender-affirming care and transitioning services for children has perpetuated one of the greatest frauds on the American public."

Mizelle added that "one of the most important tasks of government is to prevent this fraud from continuing and to remedy the consequences of this fraud."

Officials briefed on the investigation told the New York Times that DOJ's subpoenas are part of a fact-finding mission to determine whether any laws have been broken and to kick-start negotiations with the healthcare providers over transgender treatment policy.

The officials said that investigators could eventually seek criminal charges if evidence of fraud is found, but critics argue the motivation is more political and aimed at intimidating providers.

"This politically motivated effort is a drastic overreach and a backhanded attempt to intimidate providers and institutions serving the transgender youth population," said Scott Leibowitz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who led a youth gender clinic in Columbus, Ohio, until the state's ban took effect last year.

DOJ's subpoenas, Leibowitz added, will create "widespread fear for every patient in the country who will be wondering when or if their private healthcare records will be released."

(Ghorayshi/Thrush, New York Times, 7/10; Henderson, MedPage Today, 7/11)

Top FDA vaccine official overrode scientists on COVID-19 vaccines

Vinay Prasad, chief medical and scientific officer at FDA, rejected broad use of two COVID-19 vaccines, citing unknown risks or injuries, despite safety assurances from dozens of staff experts, according to recently released documents.

Records show around 30 of FDA's vaccine staff scientists signed off on approving the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which would serve as an alternative to mRNA shots, as well as the next generation of mRNA COVID-19 shots from Moderna for anyone ages 12 and older.

Prasad overruled those recommendations and instead advised restricting the use of both vaccines, writing in two memos that the threat from the virus had fallen and changed the risk-benefit balance of vaccinating healthy, younger people.

The records show that FDA staff members concluded based on clinical trials that the vaccines were safe and effective, but Prasad said there could still be vaccine-related injuries that haven't been discovered yet.

"Even rare vaccination-related harms, both known and unknown, now have a higher chance of outweighing potential benefits in non-high-risk populations," Prasad wrote in documents overriding staff members on the Novavax shot.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, said the idea "that Dr. Prasad 'overruled' FDA scientists is a distortion of facts."

Instead, Nixon said that Prasad "evaluated the totality of the evidence and made a judgment rooted in gold-standard science. That's not political — it's what principled leadership looks like."

Experts who reviewed the documents said that Prasad failed to consider the well-documented harmful effects of COVID-19, including long COVID and other post-COVID lung, heart, and blood-clotting problems. FDA staff members in their records noted that long COVID "has been recognized as a significant and serious consequence" of the disease.

(Jewett, New York Times, 7/2)