Around Town

Waveny Care Center ‘Has Suffered and Will Continue To Suffer Significant Harm’: Nursing Home Sues Healthcare Plan Provider

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A Wilton-based company that specializes in healthcare plans and third-party administration services has violated its contract with Waveny Care Center by failing and refusing to provide documentation related to claims and payments made on behalf of the Farm Road facility’s employees, according to a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Stamford. According to a complaint filed on behalf of Waveny Care Center by attorneys Patrick Begos and Trevor Bradley of Stamford-based Robinson+Cole, the third-party company— Employee Benefits Solutions LLC or ‘EBS’—has failed and refused to to provide records demonstrating that claims had been processed appropriately, that approved claims had been paid in full, that service providers were paid using network reimbursement rates, among other areas. Those are areas of concern, according to the suit—first filed in July and scheduled for the court’s short calendar next week—in part because “Waveny has received numerous complaints and communications from employees, and/or employees’ healthcare providers, that providers did not receive payment for claims that EBS was contractually obligated to process and pay, and/or that EBS represented it had paid,” according to the complaint. “Some of these complaints countered claims that EBS had represented it had paid years ago. In some cases, healthcare providers have referred employees’ past-due balances to debt collectors and/or attorneys for collection.”

An attorney representing the defendant, Richard P. Colbert of Stamford’s Day Pitney LLP, could not immediately be reached for comment, though he has filed opposition materials on behalf of EBS (see below).

Around Town

‘You Have To Work At It’: Waveny Care Center’s Prized Volunteerism Receives Boost from Local Family

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As Diana Siano and Pickie Rosemond Harvey-Smith made their way through The Village  at Waveny Care Center on a recent afternoon, they catch sight of handsome Harry Sharlach. “Harry! Oh Harry!” They swoon. Sharlach turns but it is too late: He vanishes into a cloud of kisses. Both Siano and Sharlach are part of a vast network of volunteers that bolsters the day-to-day care at Waveny LifeCare Network, where Harvey-Smith resides.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The aerial photos in the gallery above show the new turf being laid at the Water Tower Turf field at New Canaan High School and the final stages of drainage and grading for the NCHS track. Both projects are moving forward on schedule, and officials expect completion of the first turf field midweek next week and paving of the track by the end of next week. The project, estimated to cost $5.8 million is a public-private partnership between the town and New Canaan Athletic Foundation. ***

Town officials last month received an after-the-fact application to add a full bathroom in the basement of a New Canaan home. The bathroom at 31 Shady Knoll Lane went in “many years ago” and the job cost approximately $5,000, according to a building permit application received Sept.

Around Town

Copper Beech Planted by Waveny House as Locals Honor Ted Winpenny on Arbor Day

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The head of New Canaan’s Public Tree Board gathered with a selectman and small group of locals on the windswept field by Waveny House on Friday morning to dedicate a newly planted copper beech tree to the memory a civic-minded New Canaan man. This year’s Arbor Day planting was dedicated to Ted Winpenny, a man whose numerous activities in New Canaan made it difficult for the board to decide just where to plan the tree, board Chairman Tom Cronin said. “Do we plant the tree at Mead Park, where Ted helped organize the annual Labor Day doubles tennis tournaments?” Cronin said, as Winpenny’s daughter and grandson, Belinda and Benjamin Paris, stood nearby. “Do we plant it on Cherry Street, in front of the New Canaan Community Foundation that he helped to establish, which is an organization that has soon will hit a milestone of more than $10 million to local charities since its inception? Do we plant near Waveny Care Center, where Ted volunteered for so many years?

Business

Here are 28 Current New Canaan Chamber Member Businesses That Also Belonged in Back in ’82

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Here’s a short list of sweeping economic crises that have affected, directly or indirectly, every U.S. business since 1982: Black Monday, savings and loan crisis, subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession. Locally, success in business involves nimbleness and acumen, and far more than that—interpersonal skills, involvement, diligence and imagination. Recently, the head of an organization that’s central for many local businesses, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, came by chance across a list of 28 current members that also were members back in 1982. “They’ve supported the chamber, supported the town and been here for a long, long time,” Executive Director Tucker Murphy said. “We want to congratulate them on that.”

Here’s the list, in alphabetical order (not every single business has been a continuous member of the chamber, though many—including Bob’s Sports, Karl Chevrolet, Walter Stewart’s and Stewart’s Spirits—have been):

Ann Taylor
Baskin Robbins
Bob’s Sports
Brotherhood & Higley
Congregational Church
Family Britches
Franco’s Wine
Healthfare
Hersam Acorn- New Canaan Advertiser
Hoyt Funeral Home
Hutchinson Tree Company

Karl Chevrolet
League of Women Voters
Merrill Lynch
New Canaan Board of Realtors
New Canaan Community Nursery School
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Library
New Canaan Nature Center
Pennyweights
Roger Sherman Inn
Silvermine Arts Guild
Stewart’s Spirits
Taylor’s Luggage
Visiting Nurse Association of New Canaan
Walter Stewart’s
Waveny Care Center
Whitney Shop

Ties to the local chamber run very deep for businesses such as Walter Stewart’s, recently recognized as Business of the Year.