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• Assembly vote today takes aim at court's malpractice rulings
• Update: Medical malpractice bills pass Assembly
• Prosecutors still pondering charges in bus crash
• Company B parade set for Saturday in New Richmond

By Brady Bautch, RiverTown Internet Publisher

Several rulings this summer by the Wisconsin Supreme Court took the cap off non-economic damages patients can receive for medical malpractice in the state.

Today the state Assembly will vote on one of several bills aimed at reversing those rulings.

"For 10 years Wisconsin was the envy of the nation because of the perceived stability in our malpractice rates and our patient's compensation fund," said Rep. Curt Gielow, R-Peshtigo.

Gielow, who also earns a living recruiting physicians into Wisconsin and Minnesota, said that the caps help make health care more available in the state because it is cheaper for physicians to practice here.

"Caps keep older established physicians in practice, they make it easier for young physicians to get a start and keep physicians in rural areas," said Gielow.

Following the court's rulings Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, put together a medical malpractice task force headed up Gielow, who is also member of both the committees on health and insurance.

The bipartisan committee, which included members from the legal, health and insurance industries, looked at ways the Legislature could reinstate the caps under the guidelines set by the court's various rulings.

One bill (AB 766) which will be voted on today in the Assembly limits non-economic damages for each occurrence of malpractice to $550,000 for persons under age 18 and $445,755 for anyone over 18. No caps are placed on economic damages.

The bill does have its opponents including the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers and the AFL-CIO.

"The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO opposes caps, but if there are going to be caps instituted, they should be significantly higher than those proposed in AB 766, and automatically indexed for inflation," the union said in a memo to legislators.

Gielow said he expects today's vote to go mostly along party lines.

Another bill (AB 765) carries through on a task force recommendation that all medical residents have a temporary education permit that allows them to be considered health care providers. It also allows medical schools to join the state's medical malpractice fund.

Yet another bill (AB 766) would require juries to take into account when awarding damages the amount of money a patient receives from outside sources.

Currently juries can only receive information from outside sources about the value of medical services the patient received.

Another bill also requires that a periodic actuarial audit be taken of the state's medical malpractice fund.

Brady Bautch can be contacted at internet@rivertowns.net

Four bills aimed at reversing recent state Supreme Court rulings which overturned Wisconsin's caps on medical malpractice claims were passed in the state Assembly yesterday.

Two bills passed along pretty much along party lines.

By a vote of 60-34 AB 766 was passed. This bill limits non-economic damages for each occurrence of malpractice to $550,000 for persons under age 18 and $445,755 for anyone over 18. No caps are placed on economic damages.

Also passing by a vote of 60-34 was AB 764 would require juries to take into account when awarding damages the amount of money a patient receives from outside sources.

Currently juries can only receive information from outside sources about the value of medical services the patient received.

Two bills were passed by a unanimous vote of 96-0.

One of these bills, AB 765, allows all medical residents have a temporary education permit that allows them to be considered health care providers.

It also allows medical schools to join the state's medical malpractice fund.

The other bill, AB 769, requires that a periodic actuarial audit be taken of the state's medical malpractice fund.

The action was taken after rulings this summer which eliminated the caps.

Following the court's rulings Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, put together a medical malpractice task force headed up Gielow, who is also member of both the committees on health and insurance.

The bipartisan committee, which included members from the legal, health and insurance industries, looked at ways the Legislature could reinstate the caps under the guidelines set by the court's various rulings.

The bills passed Tuesday were the result of the recommendations of the panel which was headed up by Rep. Curt Gielow, R-Mequon, who is also a member of the committees on health and insurance.

"For 10 years Wisconsin was the envy of the nation because of the perceived stability in our malpractice rates and our patient's compensation fund," said Rep. Curt Gielow, R-Peshtigo.

Gielow, who also earns a living recruiting physicians into Wisconsin and Minnesota, said that the caps help make health care more available in the state because it is cheaper for physicians to practice here.

"Caps keep older established physicians in practice, they make it easier for young physicians to get a start and keep physicians in rural areas," said Gielow.

The bills do have opponents including the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers and the AFL-CIO.

"The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO opposes caps, but if there are going to be caps instituted, they should be significantly higher than those proposed in AB 766, and automatically indexed for inflation," the union said in a memo to legislators.

Prosecutors in Eau Claire County say they'll decide within two weeks if any charges will be filed in the bus crash that killed five people near Osseo 10 days ago.

The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that the lead bus taking the Chippewa Falls High School band home from a state competition had defective brakes. And the bus driver was not wearing his glasses, as his license required.

The driver, 78-year-old Paul Rasmus, was killed along with the band director and three others.

The bus slammed into a semi-truck that had just jackknifed, and blocked the westbound lanes of Interstate-94 at two in the morning on Oct. 16.

The NTSB says it remains to be seen whether the defective brakes will be the final cause of the crash -- because officials have not determined how far the bus was behind the semi when the truck over-turned. Therefore, no one knows if Rasmus would have had any time to react.

Investigators also said Rasmus was awake for 19 hours at the time of the crash.

The semi-truck driver had a suspended license for not paying speeding ticket in Indiana.

Get out your American flags and head to downtown New Richmond on Saturday.

At 11 a.m., soldiers with the local National Guard unit, Company B, will officially return home after a year of active duty in Iraq. A huge parade is planned. Law enforcement and emergency services personnel from as many as 20 different area agencies plan to participate in the event.

If everything comes off as scheduled, the troops and their families will walk along Knowles Avenue in New Richmond, greeting well-wishers along the route. They will all end up in Glover Park (next to the library) to take down the individual yellow ribbons that were placed there last year when the soldiers left for Iraq.

The crowd will then head to New Richmond High School, where an official welcome home event is planned.

Parade organizers hope a big crowd attends the parade and high school gathering.