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Guide to the Dorothy P. Rice Papers, 1974-1997 (bulk 1994-1997)
MSS 98-03  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Dorothy P. Rice Papers,
    Date (inclusive): 1974-1997
    Date (bulk): (bulk 1994-1997)
    Collection number: MSS 98-03
    Creator: Rice, Dorothy P.
    Extent: 3 boxes

    approx. 1.85 linear ft.
    Repository: University of California, San Francisco. Library. Archives and Special Collections.
    San Francisco, California 94143-0840
    Abstract: This collection contains the non-confidential documents of Dorothy P. Rice pertaining to the class action suit filed by Mississippi State Attorney General Michael C. Moore aimed at recovering Medicaid costs for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses from the tobacco companies.
    Physical location: Archives
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Library and Center for Knowledge Management. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Library and Center for Knowledge Management as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    Dorothy P. Rice Papers, MSS 98-03, Archives & Special Collections, UCSF Library & CKM

    Acquisition Information

    The Dorothy P. Rice Papers were given to the Tobacco Control Archives by Dorothy P. Rice on March 16, 1998.

    Biography

    Dorothy P. Rice is a renowned expert in health statistics specializing in cost-of-illness studies. Rice served as an expert witness in the class-action suit against the major tobacco companies filed by Mississippi State Attorney General Michael C. Moore to recover compensation for state Medicaid costs for the treatment of tobacco-related illnesses. Rice is co-author with Wendy Max, Adjunct Professor of Medical Economics and Co-Director of the Institute for Health & Aging at UCSF, of The Cost of Smoking in California (1995), and a number of other articles on the costs of tobacco-related illnesses. She was also a principal investigator in two projects funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The first, "The Cost of Smoking in the United States" (9/1/95-present), co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was to develop a model to estimate the cost of smoking including direct and indirect costs, control for other factors, and apply the model to the various states. The second project, "Public Economic Costs of the Health Effects of Smoking" (1/1/96-12/31/98) provides technical assistance to staffs at State Health Departments and State Attorneys General offices on the economic costs of the health effects of smoking.
    Rice received her B.A. in Labor Economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1941. After college Rice went to Washington, D.C. where she held a variety of positions within the federal government during World War II, and joined the new Division of Hospital Facilities in the Public Health Service at the end of the war. In 1949 she left paid employment and focused on raising her three sons. She returned to the Public Health Service in 1960. Over the next several years she served in a variety of positions with both the Public Health Service and the Social Security Administration. With the enactment and implementation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965-66, she became Chief of the Health Insurance Research Branch, Division of Research and Statistics in the Social Security Administration. In 1972 she became Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Research and Statistics at the Social Security Administration and in 1976 she moved back to the Public Health Service, serving as Director of the National Center for Health Statistics until her retirement from the federal civil service in 1982.
    After moving to California in 1982, she contacted former University of California, San Francisco chancellor, Philip R. Lee, with whom she had worked during his tenure as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Welfare. Lee introduced her to Carroll Estes at UCSF's Institute for Health and Aging, leading to Rice's appointment first as Regent's Lecturer and then as Professor in Residence in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Since 1994 she has been Professor Emerita, working part-time for the Institute for Health and Aging. Rice has an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Rutgers University and has authored approximately 200 articles and other publications.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    This collection contains the non-confidential documents of Dorothy P. Rice pertaining to the class action suit filed by Mississippi State Attorney General Michael C. Moore aimed at recovering Medicaid costs for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses from the tobacco companies. The bulk of the materials (depositions and other court documents) are dated 1995-97. Background documents included in the collection are dated 1974-97.
    The Mississippi case (Mike Moore, Attorney General ex rel, State of Mississippi Tobacco Litigation, Case 94-1429) ended in a landmark $3.4 billion settlement by the nation's four largest tobacco companies (Philip Morris Incorporated, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, and Lorillard Corporation) four days before it went to trial in July 1997. This settlement paved the way for similar settlements in Florida and Texas, and the attempt to create a national tobacco settlement. The Mississippi case would have been the first Medicaid case to come to trial. Moore had already set precedent when the Liggett Group, a smaller tobacco company, had signed a separate out-of-court settlement with the state that dismissed them as parties to the Mississippi litigation in return for Liggett's agreement to provide internal documents and witnesses to the plaintiffs in the Mississippi and other state-sponsored suits.
    Materials include copies of depositions of key plaintiff witnesses: Lester B. Breslow, Leonard S. Miller, Vincent P. Miller, Richard Peto, Victor Rogli; copies of court documents and correspondence concerning subpoenas of business records, and various motions; background material including tobacco company corporate documents, reports on research by Rice and other witnesses, and journal articles.

    Arrangement

    The collection is divided into four series: Depositions, Other Court Documents, Background Materials, and Tobacco Company Documents. All records are arranged chronologically except for Depositions, which is arranged alphabetically.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Rice, Dorothy
    Breslow, Lester
    Philip Morris Incorporated
    R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Brown & Williamson
    P. Lorillard Corporation
    Smoking--Law and legislation
    Tobacco industry
    Externalities (Economics)