September 24, 2026
Local healthcare finance expert Stephen T. Parente, Ph.D., has been named as one of eight new members to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The task force determines what preventive medical services insurers must cover for free.
Parente is the Minnesota Insurance Industry Chair of Health Finance, director of the Medical Industry MBA program, associate dean of the Carlson Global Institute, and professor in the department of finance at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
According to an HHS press release, Parente was “appointed to the Task Force for his expertise in evaluating the cost and value of healthcare services and technologies and their impacts on patients and the delivery of care.”
"I’m honored to join the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force,” Parente said. “As a health economist and health services researcher, I look forward to learning from my clinical colleagues and contributing a complementary perspective to the task force’s work. Congress expressly included cost effectiveness among the evidence the task force is charged with reviewing. I hope to work with my fellow members to examine how that part of its authority can best inform careful, evidence-based consideration of preventive care."
Parente will be a panelist in an upcoming MMA Physician Forum later this year. (Stay tuned for details in a future edition of News Now.)
It is the first time that non-primary care physicians have been added to the task force.
The AMA said in a statement from President Willie Underwood, III, MD, MSc, MPH: “The composition of this new slate represents a significant departure from the Task Force’s traditional membership. We believe maintaining a strong primary care voice must remain central to its work. As the USPSTF moves forward, its recommendations must continue to be based on a transparent, rigorous, independent scientific process and informed by the perspective of physicians who deliver preventive care to patients every day. This is essential for ensuring that task force recommendations are trusted by clinicians and followed by patients.”
November 5, 2026
Minnesota Democrats had a strong showing on Election Day, November 3, expanding their majority in the Senate, and breaking the two-year tie in the House to regain control of both chambers.
November 5, 2026
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reported on October 29 that the number of measles cases in Minnesota for 2026 has reached a total of 80 cases — the most the state has seen in a single year since 1990.
November 5, 2026
On October 29, a federal judge ruled that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) exceeded its authority when it restricted the definition of medical frailty – for the purpose of Medicaid work requirement exemptions– beyond the language in statute H.R. 1 (i.e., the One Big Beautiful Bill Act).