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New Jersey employers shifted more of the cost of health insurance to their employees in 2016, helping them slow down the rise in insurance premiums, a survey released Monday by the state's biggest business lobby group found. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association, however, said increase in health care costs still far outpaced inflation. It prompted the organization to call on Trenton to take steps to protect consumers from steep charges when they use a provider out of their insurance company's network. (Diamond, 10/3)

The disparity between breast cancer death rates for black and white women in Atlanta is greater than in any other major U.S. city, a new study has found. Among black women in Atlanta, 44 per 100,000 died of breast cancer in the period 2010 to 2014. Meanwhile, 20 white women per 100,000 died of breast cancer in Atlanta. The differential is the largest in the nation – and the gap is growing. Atlanta also had the largest increase in the black/white disparity on breast cancer mortality. (Miller, 10/3)

Wyoming has the fourth highest suicide rate in the nation, but last week, the state joined the National Crisis Text Line to make it easier for people at risk of suicide to reach out for help. People can text "WYO" to 741-741 and hear back from a crisis counselor within five minutes. The counselors can help them talk through their problems, and then help them find services in their communities. (Elder, 10/3)

Hundreds of Louisiana government documents and emails between officials obtained by ProPublica through freedom of information requests show widespread mismanagement and understaffing at Red Cross-run shelters. Some evacuees went hungry, thirsty and without medical attention as a result. People at one shelter had “no food or water for 24 hours over the weekend,” wrote the head of a local nonprofit eight days after the flooding began. “A woman gave birth with no medical assistance.” Another day, the shelter served only 195 meals out of 500 because Red Cross workers showed up late. (Kravitz, 10/3)

Aspire Health, a Nashville-based palliative care provider, inked $32 million in venture capital in a deal led by an investment arm of Google. Aspire is trying to make care for people in the end stages of terminal disease more comfortable by employing providers who support the specialty care teams to make visits to the person's home as a way to eliminate unnecessary hospitalizations. (Fletcher, 10/3)

Exact Sciences Corp., a Madison maker of molecular diagnostic tests, said Monday its flagship test for colon cancer has been added to a data set that is widely used to measure the quality of health plans. The test, called Cologuard, is now included in the 2017 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set quality measures for colorectal cancer screening. More than 90% of all U.S. health plans use the HEDIS information to measure performance on care and service. (Gallagher, 10/3)

Starting last month, a rare but devastating genetic disease is now part of the routine blood screening given to all California babies shortly after birth. Adrenoleukodystrophy – commonly called ALD – is a tongue-twisty name for a brain disease that primarily strikes boys, often in the prime of childhood. Until now, it’s usually been detected too late to save children from deteriorating into a vegetative state, if not early death. (Buck, 10/3)

In a city full of doctors, hospitals and health care businesses, residents face higher chronic disease rates than the national average. Meanwhile, the percentage of those with academic credentials beyond a high school degree is lower than Nashville’s peer metropolitan cities, and the region's traffic woes are expected to double by 2040. (McGee, 10/4)

Supporters of a constitutional amendment that would broadly legalize medical marijuana in Florida received a $1 million boost this week from a political committee focused on similar initiatives in other states. The committee, New Approach, is tied to the family of the late philanthropist Peter Lewis, the former head of Progressive Insurance who died in 2013 and who financed medical-marijuana proposals in Washington and Massachusetts. New Approach also was a major contributor to an Oregon initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. (10/3)

Come Nov. 8, Florida could be the 26th state to legalize full-strength medical marijuana for patients with cancer, epilepsy and a host of other conditions. That gives supporters and opponents of Amendment 2 just five weeks to persuade voters. And they've started in earnest, pumping millions of dollars from wealthy donors into TV ads, mailings and recruiting big-name endorsers. Pro-medical marijuana group United for Care has logged $5.2 million since 2015, most of it from large donors, including a $1 million contribution last week from pot activist group New Approach. (Auslen, 10/3)