Docs react to potential HHS Chief of Staff Heather Flick: 'She's being put in there as a guardrail to try and reassure people'

Heather Flick is expected to be the next Chief of Staff for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).^[]

Flick served in a variety of senior positions at HHS during the first Trump administration.  She was the department’s acting general counsel, then the acting secretary for administration and a senior advisor to Alex Azar.

Prior to working at the HHS, Flick was an attorney at Dhillon Law Group. She is an attorney at Binnall Law Group.

The HHS Chief of Staff's influence

The HHS employs more than 80,000 people, and experts say that Flick has the potential to have significant influence.^[]

Kanwar Kelley, MD, JD, a board-certified otolaryngologist and the co-founder and CEO of Side Health, says the position is “an incredibly influential role,” noting the appointee oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the FDA, and the NIH, among other departments.

“They basically become, for lack of a better description, the chief operating officer of the department,” he explains to MDLinx. “So these are the folks [who] are controlling the day-to-day schedule, the day-to-day priorities, the day-to-day functioning of the department. So they're hugely influential, and they pretty much gatekeep what happens in terms of policy priorities.”

“You have to be facile with understanding everything, from research to the FDA approval process and regulating the cosmetic products and pharmaceutical products, all the way to healthcare delivery and running our nation's largest health insurance plans,” Dr. Kelley continues. “So there's a lot of knowledge and experience and expertise that's required for that position, and it requires a special person with a lot of experience to do it properly,” Dr. Kelley says.

When asked whether Flick has the necessary qualifications for the role, Dr. Kelley notes that it is “to be determined.”  

A close eye on the HHS

There has been speculation that Flick will be placed in the role by senior Trump officials to provide a close eye on the activities of the department.

“In theory, she's being put in there as a guardrail to try and reassure people that, should [RFK Jr.] actually be past his confirmation hearing, we shouldn't worry too much,” Paul Offit, MD, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells MDLinx.

“But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a zealot, [and] he thinks that we're hurting children with vaccines,” Dr. Offit says. “So I don't think there are guardrails to be put in place.”