Audit: Wisconsin Medical Malpractice Fund Healthy

A new report says Wisconsin’s medical malpractice insurance fund is rebounding from a massive transfer and the economic downturn.

The Legislative Audit Bureau released a study Friday that found the fund’s net asset balance stood at $361.3 million as of mid-2012.

The fund was $109 million in the red in mid-2009. The report ties the deficit largely to 2007-09 state budget provisions that shifted $200 million from the fund to Medicaid.

The state Supreme Court ruled the transfer was illegal and the state transferred $234 million back into the fund in August 2011. The study notes, too, that the fund’s investment earnings have been growing over the last two years.

The fund has paid $807.8 million to cover 660 claims between its creation in 1975 and mid-2012.