Radiologist Dennis Wulfeck, MD, is one of four new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) members who own stock in companies that make products affected by the panel’s decisions, according to conflict-of-interest waivers obtained by the New York Times.
Wulfeck, a diagnostic radiologist and president of the practice board at Jacksonville, FL-based RadPartners MBB Radiology, owns stock in Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, CVS Health, and 17 other companies, according to the waivers. The companies make up no more than 20% of his portfolio, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Director Roger Klein, MD, wrote in the waiver. Wulfeck declined to comment on his investments, the newspaper reported.
The waivers allowed the members to serve on the task force. Members must still consider whether to recuse themselves from topics with particular relevance to their financial interests. A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told the Times that task force members are now subject to different ethics requirements because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling made them “special government employees,” and that AHRQ is updating its procedures.
Former task force officials told the newspaper that, before the change, candidates would have been asked to sell such holdings and that the conflicts could undermine trust in the panel’s recommendations, which inform what insurers must cover, including mammography screening.
