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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Wisconsin Doctors Accuse State Of Swiping Money From Patients Fund

MADISON (CN) - The Wisconsin Medical Society claims the State of Wisconsin plans to unconstitutionally transfer $200 million from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund into the unrelated Medical Assistance Trust Fund. Physicians account for 84 percent of the Injured Patient Fund participants.

The Medical Society claims the State is trying to fund its program by stealing the money from the doctors' malpractice protection fund.

The Injured Patient Fund was created in 1975 to protect doctors and nurse anesthetists from malpractice claims not covered by insurance. Contributions to it are mandatory. Of the Fund's 14,308 participants, 84 percent are physicians, the Medical Society says.

Plaintiffs claim Gov. James Doyle's proposed 2007-2009 budget transfers $200 million out of the fund in the Medical Assistance Trust Fund, which is unrelated to the purposes for which the Society's members have been forced to pay into the Injured Patients Fund. The Society claims this illegal transfer will leave the sun without the money it need "to cover the claims of injured patients and families that have occurred but not yet been paid."

They seek declaratory judgment, an injunction, costs and fees. They are represented by Cynthia Pyper with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek. See the complaintin Dane County Court.

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