A task force charged with figuring out how to restore a cap on malpractice awards wrapped up a final draft of its recommendations Thursday without coming up with a limit.

The panel, made up of legislators, attorneys and health-care experts, drafted suggestions on how to set up the cap but left it up to lawmakers to arrive at a hard figure. The committee's chairman, Rep. Curt Gielow, R-Mequon, said setting the figure wasn't the panel's goal.

"This committee decided it wasn't our responsibility to come up with a number. It was our responsibility to come up with a methodology," Gielow said.

Republican leadership in the Assembly is pondering a bill that would reinstate Wisconsin's cap on non-economic damages stemming from malpractice. Those damages can include pain and suffering and loss of companionship.

A 1995 state law set Wisconsin's limit on non-economic damages at $350,000. The state Supreme Court in July found the law unconstitutional, ruling it had no rational basis.

Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, appointed the task force to look into how to reinstate the cap after health-care groups complained the court's decision would drive up costs and force doctors to leave the state.

One proposal calls for the Legislature to create a higher limit for injured children than adults. Another would consider a person's life expectancy, meaning younger people would have higher caps.

Jurors determining damages also would have to account for other money patients received for injuries, such as payments from Medicare or private insurance. Doing so would reduce damages for those patients.

The task force also suggested legislators consider other states' caps, insurance premiums and previous malpractice awards in Wisconsin. Gielow said that data also should bolster the legal argument the cap was arrived at rationally.

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