Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tells women: "Keep doing what you have been doing for years."

Washington (CNN) — A federal advisory board’s recommendation that women in their 40s should avoid routine mammograms is not government policy and has caused “a great deal of confusion,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday”My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important life-saving tool in the fight against breast cancer, and they still are today,” Sebelius said in a statement

“Keep doing what you have been doing for years — talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions and make the decision that is right for you.”

Sebelius waded into the controversy over Monday’s announcement by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer.

Though insurance companies look to that panel for guidance on which preventive care practices they should cover, Sebelius said the doctors and scientists on the task force “do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government.” “The task force has presented some new evidence for consideration, but our policies remain unchanged,” she said. “Indeed, I would be very surprised if any private insurance company changed its mammography coverage decisions as a result of this action.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer for U.S. women, with nearly 200,000 women expected to be diagnosed with the invasive form of the disease this year, according to the American Cancer Society. The organization said it disagrees with the findings of the task force and continues to recommend annual screening, including mammograms, for all women beginning 40 and over.

“With its new recommendations, the [task force] is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, the group’s chief medical officer.

And Sebelius’ statement is aimed at “making it clear these recommendations are not ours,” a White House source said.

The task force recommended that 40- to 49-year-old women talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test and then decide if they want to be screened.

For women 50 to 74, it recommended routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and older are unknown, it said.

The group’s previous recommendation was for routine screenings every year or two for women age 40 and older.

While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40s detect breast cancer through mammography, data show that many other women experience false positives, anxiety, and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test, according to the task force.

The group is made up of 16 health care experts, none of whom are oncologists. It reviews medical data and bases recommendations on effectiveness and risks involved.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Florida, who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at 41, called the panel’s recommendations “really disturbing” and “absolutely irresponsible.”

“It’s a very patronizing attitude that these scientists have taken,” she said. “It’s pretty outrageous to suggest that women couldn’t handle more information.”

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health, has announced that he will lead hearings into the advisory board’s recommendations.

Wasserman-Schultz said those hearings “will help us reach the appropriate policy conclusion, which I believe is that these recommendations should be set aside.”

The video above is Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviewing one of the members of the Task Force who came up with the new Guidelines for Mammogram.