Tobacco Settlement to Fund Eight Children’s Health Programs

The Harris County Hospital District Foundation will fund eight community projects this year with funds resulting from a gift given to the county by the lawyer who successfully represented the hospital district in a high-profile tobacco litigation suit.

Attorney Richard Mithoff represented all 254 counties in Texas in a 1998 suit against the state of Texas, in which the counties were seeking from the state a portion of the $15.3 billion settlement granted from tobacco companies. When the state agreed to accept the multibillion-dollar settlement from the tobacco industry, no written promises that any of that money would go to counties and hospital districts were included in the agreement, although counties and hospital districts have paid out millions for tobacco-related health care. Mithoff was hired by Harris County to represent the interests of the hospital district. He worked with a team of lawyers representing the 254 counties and successfully negotiated a $2.2 billion settlement for the counties.

Following the successful negotiation of the tobacco case, Mithoff requested that half his legal fees – $10 million – be kept by Harris County and used to fund children’s health-related programs through the hospital district foundation.

On May 31, Mithoff and his wife Ginni presented the Hospital District board with a list of eight projects totaling more than $300,000 that will be funded through interest generated from the $10 million endowment. The funding will pay for the continuation of three existing projects, and for the initiation of five new projects.

Included in the list of new projects is a program which provides for assisting parents in their homes with high-risk newborns, assisting new mothers with breastfeeding training, and an intensive care management program for pediatric patients. Funding was also approved to expand dental services for indigent children and a literacy program in pediatric units of two county hospitals.

"These programs will help children in Harris County with specific needs," said Mrs. Mithoff, chair of the Children’s Health Fund committee. "We carefully selected these projects from a long list of programs which require funding. We believe these programs will make a difference in the lives of local children."

Projects selected include:

Margaret Konefal, Ph.D./Joe Schneider, M.D.

Outpatient Follow-up Breastfeeding Support Project

$47,050 – Will provide mothers who deliver at Ben Taub General Hospital, and choose to breastfeed, the opportunity to receive follow-up breastfeeding support/counseling once they are discharged from the hospital.

Margaret Konefal, Ph.D.

Breastfeeding Support Project

$20,000 – Will provide a separate breastfeeding class/support group for pregnant minority women in Harris County and breastfeeding incentives for women who deliver babies at Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospitals.

Terri Major-Kincade, M.D.

High Risk Infant Follow-up Program

$22,500 – Will provide parent contact weekly during hospitalizations and home visits following hospital discharge for high-risk neonates.

Kathryn Ostermaier, M.D.

CHILD’S Project

$48,000 – Will provide for an intensive care management program for pediatric patients who are identified as being medically and/or socially high risk, and who are receiving outpatient medical care in the specialty pediatrics clinic at Ben Taub.

Yolanda Gloria/Ricci Sanchez

TroubleShooting for Health: Mobile Health Program

$40,000 – Will provide for continuation of a mobile health initiative that targets the medically underserved children of Harris County by improving the physical health of children from low-income families.

Ron Cookston, Ed.D.

Diversion of Utilization of Pediatric Emergency Services through Health System Navigation Services

$36,000 – Will provide for hiring and training a navigator to receive referrals and make contact with uninsured pediatric patients from the telephone triage system and the LBJ General Hospital Emergency Department.

Ana Malinow, M.D.

BOOKS Literacy Program Expansion

$40,000 – Will provide for expansion of the BOOKS literacy program (currently operational at Ben Taub) to additional Harris County Hospital District sites.

Dan Williamson, D.D.S.

Expansion of Dental Services for the Indigent Children at Antoine CHC

$47,000 – Will provide for hiring an additional dentist to provide preventive and interceptive dentistry for children identified by school nurses as having great dental needs.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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