"These are the kinds of diseases we're trying to catch," said Wendy Curran, senior director for planning and program development for Blue Cross-Blue Shield, the administrator of the Healthy Frontiers project.

One participant, Debbie Milder of Casper, said she discovered she has severe sleep apnea thanks to the program.

The 46-year-old, divorced mother of a 3-year-old son told the Casper Star-Tribune (http://bit.ly/v9xoui ) that she never could have afforded the costs of the tests, treatment and equipment for her medical problems without the program.

Efforts have been made to make people aware of the program, such as promoting it to single mothers. And the program now has five participating physicians groups, including two each in Casper and Cheyenne and one in Powell.

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, is the chairman of the state Senate's Labor, Health and Social Services Committee and chief sponsor of the project. Scott said he wanted a large enough client base to demonstrate the program's effectiveness in controlling health care costs.

House Majority Floor Leader Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, said he is concerned that enough people are involved in the program to establish credible data to judge whether it works.

"Wyoming, as a pool, is too small to be considered statistically significant," he said.

Lubnau said he will be critical of the program the next time it comes up for debate.

Yet Lubnau also said Wyoming needs to examine all of its health coverage options. He noted significant state spending on health care through workers compensation and employee health insurance, in addition to more than half a billion dollars a year on the Medicaid program.

The Joint Appropriations Committee will take a close look at the Healthy Frontiers project later this year and during the budget session beginning in February.

Sen. Michael Von Flatern, R-Gillette and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said the committee may need to look at the program's eligibility requirements, which include requiring participants to work at least 20 hours a week. And even though the program's premiums are adjusted according to income, the monthly out-of-pockets costs of up to $72 may be another deterrent to potential participants.

The project was easily approved by the 2010 Legislature, which appropriated $25,000 for administration and $750,000 for program costs from the tobacco settlement trust account.

Last winter, the Legislature extended the original $750,000 and added about $1 million to it.

The law requires completion of the demonstration project by July 1, 2015.