Citing financial strain on the municipal workers, the city council of Cheyenne, Wyoming, has voted to abandon the city's employee wellness program, despite evidence that the program improved nearly one-third of participating employees' health risk profiles after just three years.

The city's wellness program, implemented in 2011 through a contract with Cheyenne-based health insurer WINhealth Partners Health Plan, included a health risk assessment, biometric screening, wellness coaching and educational programming on nutrition and fitness.

According to data provided to Business Insurance by the city's human resources department, the initial health risk assessment and biometric screening results conducted in 2011 placed 36% of participating employees at high health risk levels, 36% at moderate risk levels and 28% at low risk levels.

By 2014, the percentages of participating employees in the high risk and moderate risk categories fell to 29% each, while the percentage of employees in the low risk category increased to 42%.

However, council members on Monday said the program's early successes were not enough to justify what they viewed as an undue financial strain on city employees.

Employees enrolled in the richer of the two available group health plans provided by the city that choose not to participate in the wellness program must pay 25% of their total insurance premium, rather than the 12.5% paid by employees enrolled in the higher-tier plan that do participate in the program. Employees enrolled in the lower-tier plan are not included in the wellness program's incentive structure.

“I think it's only creating animosity between employees and the program,” city council member Annette Williams said during a hearing Monday. “That's not to say that this wellness program is not a good program, or that the city doesn't want to get all of its employees healthy. I just see it as something that's becoming a financial hardship for some of our employees.”

“Our wellness program has had and continues to have a positive effect on our city employees,” Rich Wiederspahn, Cheyenne's human resources director, told city council members at the hearing. “I can't believe that we're having a discussion about doing away with this wellness program. It seems to me that the discussion should be centered on improving the wellness program so that it better meets the needs of our employees.”

By a 5-2 vote, the council ultimately elected to let its wellness contract with WINHealth expire at the end of the year, effectively ending the program.

“This program was started with good intentions of trying to create a culture of health and wellness in the city, but I don't think we're getting that result,” city council member Dicky Shanor said during the hearing. “Trying to force a culture change is a delicate thing, and while I don't think that we should do away with the topic of having a wellness program, I also don't think that this one is working.”