Hartford HealthCare will help former InHealth Connecticut patients obtain their medical records, state officials announced Wednesday.

In a statement, Attorney General William Tong and Public Health Commissioner Renée Coleman-Mitchell said an agreement has been reached between Hartford HealthCare and InHealth Connecticut, also known as InHealth Med CT, after the state received nearly 200 complaints from patients having trouble securing or transferring their records.

The Day first reported the problem in April, soon after Willimantic-based InHealth — a privately owned provider with no previous affiliation with Hartford HealthCare — began informing patients that it was closing its locations in Mystic, Norwich and Willimantic.

Former InHealth patients will be able to schedule the retrieval of their medical records at Hartford HealthCare's Waterford facility, 196 Parkway South, Suite 201B, by calling (860) 425-5970, starting Monday.

“Our office has heard from many former InHealth patients who needed assistance obtaining their medical records,” Tong said in the statement. “Our office has worked extensively with the Connecticut Department of Public Health to find a solution that best helps InHealth's former patients. We appreciate Hartford Healthcare's willingness to reach this agreement with InHealth, which will help ensure that former patients are able to obtain their medical records without further delay or obstacles."

Hartford HealthCare has hired two of InHealth’s former primary care physicians, Drs. Edmund West and Mahesh Kabodi, according to a Hartford HealthCare spokesman, Shawn Mawhiney. West will work at a new facility opening in September in Stonington while Kabodi will practice at Hartford HealthCare’s Montville location, Mawhiney said.

Since the InHealth offices closed, former patients have reported having difficulty reaching InHealth officials. In some cases, a lack of response complicated patients' ability to transfer their care to new physicians. By June, InHealth patients had begun filing complaints with the attorney general’s office and the state Department of Public Health.

InHealth’s chief executive officer, David Allcott, attributed the InHealth closings to the company's financial problems. InHealth principals Timothy Allcott, who is David’s brother, and ARO Equity have been linked to a 2018 complaint the Massachusetts secretary of the state’s office filed in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme. InHealth also has been named in several Connecticut lawsuits seeking to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Connecticut attorney general’s office is not currently investigating InHealth’s owners.

“Our primary interest was in allowing patients and their health care providers to gain access to their medical records. The agreement accomplished that goal,” Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for the office, wrote in an email. “At this point, we have determined a drawn out investigation and enforcement action would have unduly delayed a resolution of the medical records issue and would likely not have resulted in any additional significant relief, particularly since InHealth no longer operates in Connecticut.

“We will continue to monitor this situation and will take action as necessary and appropriate,” Benton wrote.

Under the agreement, Hartford HealthCare will take possession of InHealth medical records and administer their distribution to former InHealth patients. Hartford HealthCare also will offer patients the option of continuing their care with Hartford HealthCare.

Medical records from the three offices that were closed will be transferred to the Hartford HealthCare facility in Waterford, which will be staffed eight hours a day, five days a week, to accommodate any former InHealth patients who wish to obtain their records.

Notice of the agreement will be published in daily newspapers and mailed to patients who previously had requested their medical records from InHealth and to any patient who was seen in any of the three offices within three years of the offices' closing. More recent records that were kept exclusively in digital form will be provided upon request and without charge in either a PDF file or paper copies at the discretion of Hartford HealthCare.

Original paper records also will be available for pickup without charge.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com