InHealth Connecticut named in suits seeking to recover losses
The Willimantic-based owner of a string of doctors' offices that abruptly closed last month is named in several lawsuits seeking to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars.
InHealth Connecticut, also known as InHealth Med CT, closed its private doctors' offices in Mystic, Norwich and Willimantic, in some cases providing little advance notice to office staff and patients, some of whom said they've had trouble getting their medical records transferred.
In a lawsuit filed April 23 in Superior Court in Putnam, a lender that had agreed to loan InHealth an initial sum of $250,000 sued InHealth in a bid to recover money. The lender, Two Diamond Capital Corp. of Rockland, Mass., obtained a judge’s order granting it permission to garnish InHealth’s accounts, including all amounts InHealth is owed by health insurers.
According to the suit, Two Diamond agreed to the initial loan in December 2016 and agreed to increase the loan to $300,000 in July 2017. Judge Matthew Augur’s order granting a “prejudgment remedy” allows Two Diamond to garnish “to the value of $260,000.”
The Town of Stonington has a lien against InHealth for unpaid personal property taxes on medical equipment, said Jeffrey Londregan, an attorney for the town.
As of Friday, InHealth had not responded to the Two Diamond suit. Messages left for the company’s chief executive officer, David Allcott, were not returned. Attorneys for Two Diamond were unavailable.
In separate matters, InHealth also faces claims filed by a doctor who sold InHealth his Willimantic practice, and by the owner of a Missouri search firm InHealth hired to locate candidates for medical positions.
Dr. Victorio Te, a Mansfield resident, agreed in February 2017 to sell InHealth the assets of his medical practice for $280,000, a sum which was to be paid in 24 equal installments, starting three months after the deal’s closing date. According to Te’s suit, filed last May in Putnam, InHealth had failed to make five payments.
In a judgment in Te’s favor, Judge Leeland Cole-Chu ruled last August that InHealth must pay the doctor nearly $213,000, with interest accruing from the date of the judgment.
Te’s attorney, Mark Brouillard, said Friday that most of the money remains unpaid.
The lawsuit involving the Missouri search firm, filed this year in Superior Court in New Haven, seeks to enforce a $32,000 judgment a Missouri court handed down against InHealth in January 2018. InHealth has not responded to the suit.
In still another matter filed last year in Superior Court in New London, a corporate entity owned by Robert Valenti sued InHealth over unpaid rent on Seaport Medical Center’s former Whitehall Avenue location in Mystic. InHealth, then known as Medical Centers of New England, acquired Seaport Medical in 2016, and last year moved it to the Mystic Green plaza off Coogan Boulevard.
InHealth agreed to pay Valenti $20,000 to settle the suit, court records show. It could not be determined Friday whether the amount was paid.
ARO Equity, an entity that invested in InHealth, is a subject of a complaint Massachusetts authorities filed last year in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme. Allcott’s brother, Timothy, also is a subject of the complaint.
Recorded phone messages at InHealth's closed locations advised patients Friday to request the transfer of their medical records by emailing inhealthmedrecordrequest@gmail.com or by fax at (978) 560-0664. David Allcott had provided The Day with a different email address last month.
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