A bill to protect medical practitioner volunteers from high malpractice insurance premiums passed without opposition in the state Assembly Tuesday.

Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, said in a release last week medical practitioners who currently volunteer in addition to working at a health care facility need to use the same malpractice insurance for both their work and volunteering endeavors, causing their malpractice insurance to rise significantly.

"This bill would help doctors provide free health care to thousands of low-income families around the state," Wieckert wrote in the release. "I am very pleased to have such a large amount of bipartisan support for this bill."

Retired volunteers are also concerned they might not be covered by the state, since they do not work for a specific provider.

Scott Becher, chief of staff for Wieckert, said after talking with groups like the Wisconsin Academy of Physicians, Wieckert identified changes that needed to be made to existing laws to add clarity.

"There was ambiguity in the law," Becher said. "We need these changes in the law to make sure that doctors are covered."

Fox Cities Community Health Center operations manager Kristine Stacker said she has seen her volunteers get frustrated with the insurance issues.

"If a physician is working somewhere and they have medical malpractice insurance, it would increase if they volunteered here," Stacker said. "They would be penalized for volunteering."

Because the Fox Cities Community Health Center is a federally qualified facility, they serve everyone, but focus primarily on low-income uninsured and underinsured people. The current state system, Stacker said, does not aid volunteers if a patient is insured.

"I have lost some volunteers due to their skepticism that the state would cover them," Stacker said.

However, the state covers people who are considered agents of the Department of Health and Family Services.

The bill would make any volunteers through the Volunteer Health Care Provider Program agents of the DHFS, even if they already have medical malpractice insurance.

Under the VHCPP, volunteers who are working with a nonprofit agency are required to provide health care to low-income people free of charge.

"A lot of people think this is a really good program, and we can modify it a bit to make it an even better program," Becher said.

A variety of health care practitioners volunteering will be agents of the DHFS under the bill, including physicians, dentists, dental hygienists, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, optometrists and physician assistants.

The bill passed with no opposition in a 96-0 vote in the Assembly.

Becher thinks the bill has bipartisan support because of the way it helps disadvantaged families throughout the state.

"It is a commonsense idea," Becher said. "It's a very low cost way to get quality care to poor and misfortunate people."

The bill now has to pass through the Senate. Becher said he hopes the Senate will acknowledge how widely accepted the bill was in the Assembly and move it along quickly.

"We are very hopeful that that bill will have fast action and the governor will sign it this session," Becher said.