§299b–4 Research Supporting Primary Care and Access in Underserved Areas

Summary

The Director must set up an independent Preventive Services Task Force made up of experts. The Task Force will look at the science about clinical preventive services—how well they work, when they are appropriate, and how cost-effective they are—and write recommendations for doctors, health systems, employers, community groups, Congress, and others. Its recommendations will be published in the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services and will take into account advice from agencies and scientific groups like AHRQ, NIH, CDC, specialty medical groups, and patient groups. The Task Force must create new topic areas, update existing recommendations at least once every 5 years, link its work to federal health goals, share its findings widely, help organizations that ask for technical support, and send yearly reports to Congress pointing out research gaps and priorities. The Agency must give administrative, research, and technical support, help spread the recommendations, and assist groups that want to put them into practice. The Task Force must coordinate with the Community Preventive Services Task Force and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Its members and advice must be independent and, as far as possible, free from political pressure. The Task Force does not have to follow the rules in chapter 10 of title 5, and funding is authorized as needed each fiscal year. Also, the Agency must create a Center for Primary Care Research to fund and study primary care. That Center will focus on what primary care looks like, how common and unclear health problems are handled, and how care stays continuous and coordinated.