Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling means the state will have to pay back millions of dollars taken from a medical malpractice fund, but there’s plenty of partisan finger pointing going on already. Dan Schooff, Secretary of the Department of Administration, criticizes the interest group which filed a legal challenge to the 2007, $200 million, budget balancing transfer from the Patients Compensation Fund – the Wisconsin Medical Society. “We think that a question could be asked as to why this was such a big priority for the state’s doctors,” says Schoof. State Representative Mark Pocan, a Madison Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee points out that Republicans who controlled the state Assembly came up with the fund raid in the first place. “It’s a sign that, when the Republicans were in control in the Assembly and this was part the scheme that they did to get out of the budget in 2007, it wasn’t a very smart decision,” says Pocan, who voted for the budget deal which was later signed by Governor Jim Doyle. “Now we’re going to have to fix it.”
State Representative Bob Ziegelbauer, the Manitowoc Independent who was a Democrat when the fund raid was approved by lawmakers in 2007, says he warned against the move at the time. “Many of us spoke loudly and long about how wrong this was at the time,” says Ziegelbauer, who praised the Supreme Court decision. “The state budget has a two and a half to three billion dollar hole in it, looking ahead for the next cycle, and this will make it worse. But right and wrong is more important than whether or not the state has enough money.”
Governor Doyle had also claimed the fund had enough money to help balance the budget and still pay out future claims. But Dr. Tim Bartholow with the Wisconsin Medical Society notes a March report by a legislative agency called that assertion into question. “The Legislative Audit Bureau said that there’s not enough money in that fund today, in order to pay what we believe will be claims into the future,” says Barholow. But DOA Secretary Schooff disagrees with some of those findings. “The fund in a cash basis has north of $600 million and will now have north of $800 million,” says Schooff. “The decision three years ago to use some of these dollars to pay for health care needs did not diminish that.”
The justices overturned a circuit court’s decision dismissing the lawsuit by the Medical Society, which opposed the 2007 raid on the fund. The Medical Society challenged the legality of the fund transfer, taking the case to the Supreme Court after a Dane County judge rejected it. Pocan says lawmakers will make sure the issue is resolved, although it’s still not clear exactly when or how that’s going to be accomplished. The Supreme Court sent the case back to Dane County circuit court, where that decision will be made. Schooff says budget cuts and other measures will now have to be implemented, including additional cuts to the Medicaid and BadgerCare Plus programs. “That’s one branch of government, but the legislature’s another branch of government,” says Pocan. “I think we might have some different ways to address this if we have to. Right now we’re just on a wait and see, to see what the courts decide.”
AUDIO: Dr. Tim Bartholow (5:00)
AUDIO: DOA Secretary Dan Schooff (4:30)
WOMT contributed to this report