Despite the reduced fees, the fund’s surplus in September was $783 million, $406.4 million more than the upper end of the range recommended last year by regulators, of $86.4 million to $376.6 million, according to the Legislative Audit Bureau report last month.

The audit recommended that the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, which administers the fund, develop a plan to bring the surplus into the target range.

Ted Nickel, insurance commissioner, said the fees will be reduced again by 30 percent in 2016-17.

End said the fund’s total assets, which were $1.2 billion in June, are $345 million greater than the $855 million the fund has paid in 672 claims since it was created in 1975.

“That just blows me away,” End said.

Attorneys say injured patients in Wisconsin have a hard time getting compensation because of restrictions on who can sue, caps on damages and the fund. Wisconsin ranked 49th among states in malpractice payments per capita from 2004 to 2014, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Parents in Wisconsin can’t sue if their adult children die from a medical error, and adult children can’t sue if their parents die in the same way — a prohibition found in few, if any, other states, attorneys say.