FDA is planning to consolidate leadership of its food division under a single deputy commissioner in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

• Connecticut: Cigna on Monday announced that it is rebranding under the new name of Cigna Group, and its operations will be separated into three business units. Under the change, Cigna Corp. will become Cigna Group, the company's insurance arm will become Cigna Healthcare, and its pharmacy and care delivery division will become Evernorth Health Services. According to the company, its shares as Cigna Group will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchanges Feb. 23. (Berryman, Modern Healthcare, 2/13)

• District of Columbia: The Biden administration has begun allowing some states to use Medicaid for groceries, as well as nutritional counseling — a move that comes as more policy makers explore the potential health and cost benefits of "food as medicine" programs. According to the Wall Street Journal, research suggests that addressing food insecurity can help improve people's health while also saving money by reducing the need for medical visits or medication. "There needs to be a bigger emphasis on how do we start encouraging people to make good healthy choices," said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who has supported bipartisan legislation to pilot a medically tailored meals program under Medicare. "And that budget-wise is going to save us money in the long term." However, some have argued that using Medicaid funds for food programs is unnecessary since the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) already helps people with lower incomes pay for food. "This is really the first I've seen the federal government push food and air conditioners and other things as allowable. We already have the SNAP program," said Gary Alexander, head of the Medicaid and Health Safety Net Initiative at Paragon Health Institute. "It seems like it's blurring the lines." (Armour/Peterson, Wall Street Journal, 2/12)

• Maryland: FDA Commissioner Robert Califf recently announced plans to create a new senior position within the agency to oversee its food division. According to the Washington Post, Califf will appoint a new deputy commissioner who will lead both the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Office of Food Policy and Response. The move is part of Califf's efforts to overhaul FDA's food division following criticisms of its slow response to baby formula shortages and other food safety concerns last year. In December, a report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation found that FDA's current leadership structure created "a culture of indecisiveness and inaction and created disincentives for collaboration." In an interview, Califf said the new structure will create a "unified program that has clear lines of authority, clear lines of reporting, a concerted effort to create efficiency, the development of an enterprise-wide information technology system to support the operations and a single leader to whom it reports." He also noted that the new structure would increase communication across different parts of the agency. "No matter how we configure it, there needs to be collaboration in these entities," Califf said. (Bogage, Washington Post, 1/31; Peterson, Wall Street Journal, 1/31)