CHEYENNE - Count Gov. Dave Freudenthal among those who don't think new legislation to create medical review panels in Wyoming will do much to hold down malpractice insurance premiums or to encourage parties to settle malpractice cases before they go to court.

But, in the current political climate, the version of House Bill 83 that cleared the Legislature earlier this month is "the best we're going to get," Freudenthal said before signing it into law Tuesday.

The governor made those remarks during a ceremony in his office, where he signed the last seven pieces of legislation he had yet to act upon from the Legislature's 2005 general session.

Overall, Freudenthal said, he and the Legislature agreed on a series of directions for the state's future, and he was pleased that lawmakers acted on almost every thing he had asked for this year.

But he was not satisfied with the medical review panel bill. The measure sets up panels of two health care providers, two attorneys and a lay person to review malpractice claims before they go to court.

Whether the panel's finding would automatically be admissible in court was a major point of contention during legislative debate on the bill. The Legislature declared that a judge should decide what, if any, of the panel's work would be admissible.

That legislative decision will reduce the chance that the new review panels will accomplish what supporters hope they will accomplish, which is to encourage earlier settlement of malpractice cases and to help hold down malpractice insurance rates for health care providers, Freudenthal said.

"I'm not real hopeful about it," he said.

But voters expressed their collective desire for Wyoming to reinstate such panels by passing a constitutional amendment in November, and HB 83 offers the best kinds of panels the state can expect to have "given the forces at play in the Legislature," Freudenthal said.

Arguments against forcing a judge to admit panel decisions as evidence in court are that doing so could be an unconstitutional usurpation of judicial authority and that it would also drive up the costs of going before a medical review panel.

Freudenthal said the state needs to continue looking for ways to improve people's access to health care, and he hopes the dialogue will continue throughout the interim, not just when the Legislature is in session.

"But I need to tell you, I don't have a silver bullet either," he said.

Other bills signed

Among the six other bills Freudenthal signed Tuesday are measures to pay college tuition for young dependents of firefighters killed in the line of duty and to use the Wyoming Partnership Challenge Loan program to aid southeast Wyoming bean growers who were victimized by fraud.

Under HB 243, the University of Wyoming or community colleges would be required to offer free tuition to dependents of firefighters killed in the line of duty for dependents who are under 22 at the time of the death.

"So, for sacrificing, their children will at least have an education," said State Fire Marshal Jim Narva, a supporter of the bill.

The Wyoming Partnership Challenge Loan program's eligibility requirements are being changed under HB 277 in order to give emergency assistance to Wyoming bean growers who were victimized by grain warehouse operator Jeffrey H. Reichert, owner of Mountain States Commodities in Torrington.

Reichert was sentenced in January to 11 to 19 years in prison for pocketing proceeds from sale of his customers' crops and ordered to pay $1.03 million in restitution.

Ben Avery, as portfolio loan program manager for the Wyoming Business Council, runs the office that administers the Partnership Challenge Loan program, which he said has been used only once for emergency financial aid.

That was in 2000 to aid alfalfa seed growers in the Big Horn Basin hurt by a major buyer's bankruptcy.

Avery said HB 277 would allow the bean growers to apply for low-interest loans that could be repaid over 10 years.

All bills addressed

With Tuesday's action, Freudenthal addressed the last of the legislation that lawmakers sent to him. Of the 251 bills that passed the Legislature, he vetoed only two and used his line-item veto power on three others.

He described the 2005 session as "fairly productive," although he did not get everything he wanted. For example, he would have liked to see more funding for water projects, highway widening and community facilities.

"If we as citizens don't build the state, nobody else is going to do it for us," he said.

Freudenthal said he would have been more aggressive on funding for one-time projects, but he maintains a conservative view on increasing the ongoing operating expenses of government.

"The Legislature was responsive on almost everything I asked for," he said.

One exception he mentioned was the failure of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required a two-thirds majority vote to spend money set aside in a rainy-day account.

Capital bureau reporter Bill Luckett can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at bill.luckett@casperstartribune.net.