Wisconsin Medical Society launches Patients Compensation Fund video
The Wisconsin Medical Society has posted a six-plus minute information video on YouTube that lays out the history of the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, and assails lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle for transferring $200 million from it to balance the budget. The video was posted to YouTube March 26.
WMS' senior vice president of government relations Mark Grapentine says in the video that earlier attempts to take cash from the fund failed, but last year a deal was struck as budget negotiations dragged on for months.
"Different sides say different things about why that happened," Grapentine says. "What's important now is that money has been taken from this fund that is important to patients and it has thrown the state's medical liability climate into uncertainty. And that is not doing anything to help patient health care in the state."
Ruth Heitz, general counsel for WMS, says of the lawsuit filed to stop the transfer and ensure the money "is returned to injured patients."
"It wasn't the state's money to take," she says. "It was money that was put into the fund by physicians for patients."
Grapentine says, "The Wisconsin Medical Society will do everything in its power to prevail in this case. To do otherwise would shortchange the deserving patients and families of Wisconsin."
UPDATE: Grapentine said the video was a work in progress and has been removed from the YouTube site. It was posted on YouTube as the group worked with Big Wild Productions on changes.
"We're still putting some tweaks on it so it's as attractive as possible," Grapentine said this morning. He said the video may end up on the group's Web site.
Labels: Patients_Compensation_Fund
