Roger Klein MD JD has become head of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), one of the direct operating units of Health and Human Services (like NIH or CDC). I don't have an exact date for his tenure, but the AHRQ website was updated in July 2025. Find Roger Klein MD JD at Linked In here. Find Roger D Klein MD JD Website here.
Within the AHRQ, one division is Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI). Its website says "CEPI consists of four divisions," one of which is the US Preventive Task Force Program (USPSTF).
About AHRQ
See the HHS Org Chart here, showing AHRQ as an operating division reporting to the Secretary and his chief of staff.
AHRQ has a number of centers, including CEPI Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, CFACT, the Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, and CQuIPS, Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
The home page for CEPI says it has "four divisions," one of which is USPSTF.
At least one prior director, from 2016, was Dr Andrew Bindman, a UCSF clinician. Another prior director, from 2022, was Otto Valdez PhD, prior a policy expert at Drexel and Universit of New Mexico. Valdez stepped down on January 20, 2025.
About Roger Klein MD JD
Find the home page for ARHQ Org Chart here with the Office of the Director at top, Roger Klein MD JD. Mamatha Pancholi is Deputy Director and Jay Toven is "executive officer."
Find the roles of the director here, and the bio of Dr. Klein here. I copy the current AHRQ bio of Dr. Klein at bottom (accessed 8/4/2025).
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From time to time Republicans on House budget committees have recommended reducing AHRQ's budget to zero. I'm not sure how the probably fairly large staff that support USPSTF report production are budgetized, as employees of the CEPI or as employees (staffers) of USPSTF. Of course, much of the review process is distributed to "Evidence Based Practice Centers," often housed at universities, so there is also an extramural budgeting process. Recently American Conservative chastized USPSTF as too woke. (E.g. preferring "pregnant persons" over the narrower and older term, "pregnant women.")
A recent budget (2023 enacted) was $228M core budget of which 11M was tagged for USPST. The entirety of AHRQ was $484M. At that time the President asked for USPSTF support to be raised from $11M to $18M. (Note that the panelists themselves are volunteers). Click to enlarge. $18M would support 90 staff at $200K loaded cost each FTE (e.g.)
As of 8/2025, the current panelists for USPSTF are here. Published recommendations are here. 18 are listed as in progress here.
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I asked Chat GPT to try and discuss the org structure; this is a demonstration only and should be taken with a grain of salt.
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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is an expert panel that issues evidence-based recommendations on preventive health services such as screenings, counseling, and preventive medications. Although its recommendations have no binding force by themselves, they play a key role under the Affordable Care Act (ACA): many private health plans must cover, without cost‑sharing, services rated “A” or “B” by the Task Force.
Organizationally, USPSTF is described by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as one of the four divisions within AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI). This “USPSTF Division” representing staff at AHRQ does not make recommendations; instead, it provides administrative, scientific, and technical support to the Task Force expert panel, manages systematic evidence reviews, and coordinates dissemination of recommendations.
While USPSTF has long been considered an independent panel of non‑federal experts, a recent court case clarified the limits of that independence. In Braidwood Management Inc. v. Becerra (5th Cir. 2023; SCOTUS review in 2024, decision in 2025), the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finding that the Secretary of HHS has authority to remove USPSTF members and may choose whether or not to adopt their recommendations for purposes of the ACA’s preventive‑services coverage requirements.
In short, USPSTF operates within CEPI at AHRQ for support purposes, retains professional autonomy in developing recommendations, but ultimately functions under the statutory authority of the HHS Secretary when those recommendations are used to trigger ACA coverage mandates.
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AHRQ Bio of Dr. Klein (8/4/2025)
Roger D. Klein, M.D., J.D., is a board-certified molecular pathologist and attorney who was formerly Chief Medical Officer of OmniSeq, Inc., a tumor profiling company that was acquired by LabCorp. Dr. Klein continued in a similar capacity at LabCorp helping to ensure the successful integration of the company. While at OmniSeq, he oversaw the company’s Knowledge Informatics/Data Analysis group.
Dr. Klein has been medical director of molecular pathology at several academic institutions, including Cleveland Clinic, where he oversaw molecular oncology and germline genetic testing. In addition, he has served as a medical, strategic, and regulatory consultant in the biotechnology, clinical laboratory, diagnostics, healthcare, artificial intelligence, medical device, and investment industries. A leading figure in the field, Dr. Klein has advised the Departments of Health & Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and has held leadership roles on and participated in numerous professional society committees at the Association for Molecular Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, and the American Medical Association. He is a former Co-Chair of CDC’s Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) Working Group.
He has served as a mentor with the NYU Stern School of Business’ Endless Frontier Labs startup incubator, a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science and Innovation at Arizona State University Law School, an expert on FDA and Health with the Regulatory Transparency Project, a Policy Advisory to Heartland Institute, and a member the Board of Advisors of the Liberty & Law Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
He has over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has been a member of several editorial advisory boards, and has received numerous professional and community awards.
Dr. Klein completed medical school and an internship at Case Western Reserve Medical School, residency and fellowships at Yale Medical School, and a fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He earned his law degree at Yale Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Yale Journal on Regulation and an Olin Fellow in Law, Economics, and Public Policy. He is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and New York and licensed to practice law in Ohio and the District of Columbia. Dr. Klein is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar.
