- Health Care
- Justice
Surgeon has been the focus of 22 Board of Medicine investigations
The Iowa Board of Medicine has publicly disclosed the basis for requiring a plastic surgeon to undergo a neuropsychological examination.
Over the years, surgeon Ronald S. Bergman of Des Moines has battled with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations of billing fraud, fended off lawsuits from former employees alleging sexual harassment, and been the focus of at least 22 board investigations. The litigation has involved alleged improprieties by a Polk County Sheriff’s Office detective and the former executive director of the Board of Medicine.
Bergman, 74, is currently suing the board in Polk County District Court, alleging he’s being treated unfairly and should never have been ordered to undergo a neuropsychological examination. As with most licensing board cases in Iowa, the Board of Medicine has publicly disclosed very little about its case against Bergman. However, in recent court filings, the board publicly disclosed some of the information that led to its 2022 order for a neuropsychological examination.
Noting that under Iowa law the board “is now prohibited from publicly disclosing any investigative information that was not included in the final order” it chose to issue in Bergman’s case, the board added that it is not barred “from discussing evidence” that Bergman himself has introduced during the disciplinary hearing or cited in his own court filings.
That evidence, the board says, includes sworn testimony from three physicians who assessed Bergman prior to January 2022.
According to the board, Dr. David Demarest, a neuropsychologist, examined Bergman and observed that his “motor tasks were definitely interfered with by apparent bilateral tremors or shakiness.”
Dr. Jeffrey DeFrancisco, an internal medicine specialist, allegedly stated that Bergman had a “mild essential tremor, but nothing that was of functional significance,” and Dr. Calvin Hansen, a neurologist who evaluated Bergman several times, allegedly said Bergman had a “sustention tremor” that was most visible “when he holds his hands out.”
According to the board, Hansen also testified the tremor could be attributable to several factors, including Bergman’s consumption of caffeine, which includes eight cups of coffee before 8 a.m. on a typical day.
In his response to the state’s claims, Bergman noted that DeFrancisco’s report of his examination concluded that “Dr. Bergman has no neurological condition that would preclude him from continuing to safely perform surgical procedures.”
Bergman also argues that the chairman of the board’s own physician monitoring committee has testified that the board has no medical information “confirming” the existence of any tremor that would impair Bergman’s ability to safely perform surgery.
The board claims it has the right to suspend Bergman’s license because he has refused to comply with the terms of a mutually agreed upon settlement of a disciplinary case. Bergman says the board overstepped its authority by making examinations one element of the settlement.
“The board is suggesting that it has the discretion to add anything to a negotiated settlement agreement with the licensed physician,” Bergman’s attorneys have told the court. “Yet the board offers no legal authority for that premise. Why? Because there is no such legal authority. To give the Board the power to insert the requirement of a new physical, mental or neuropsychological evaluation without probable cause would give the board unfettered power which it could readily abuse.”
Not all of the relevant records in the civil case have been made public. The court is keeping sealed unspecified docket entries culled from Iowa Courts Online, which would normally be considered public, as well as unspecified “arrest information.” Normally, records related to a person’s arrest are treated as public documents.
Bergman: Board ‘slipped’ provision into settlement
The dispute between Bergman and the board dates back to January 2022, when the two parties entered into a settlement agreement after the board alleged he had a neurological impairment that might interfere with his ability to safely practice surgery, and that he had engaged in unprofessional conduct when he sent inappropriate text messages to an employee.
Bergman denied the allegations but agreed to the board’s offer to settle the matter by complying with restrictions on his surgical practice, paying a $2,500 civil penalty and completing a course on professional boundaries. The settlement also provided that Bergman’s license would be placed on probation through Jan. 1, 2023, after which Bergman would be barred from engaging in the practice of surgery in its entirety.
In May 2022, however, the board agreed to Bergman’s request to let him perform surgery for an additional six months, through July 1, 2023. As part of that arrangement, Bergman agreed to complete a comprehensive neuropsychological examination no later than November 2022.
A few months later, Bergman allegedly became aware that the disciplinary action had resulted in his inability to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals and at the surgery center where he had performed many of his procedures. At the time, he complained the requirement for a neuropsychological evaluation had been “slipped” into the final settlement agreement he signed in May 2022.
Bergman: 22 board investigations since 1984
In October 2022, Bergman informed the board he did not plan to submit to an evaluation. In December 2022, the board charged Bergman with failure to comply with a board order, and in July 2023,the board voted to indefinitely suspend his medical license,barring him from practicing medicine of any kind in Iowa.
Bergman’s attorney, Marc Humphrey, then filed a court petitionseeking judicial review of the board’s decision, arguing that the requirement for a neuropsychological evaluation was imposed for improper purposes, claiming that in 2005, a drunken Kent Nebel, then the executive director of the Board of Medicine, told a group of boaters that he was going to “f— Dr. Bergman.”
Humphrey later filed another brief in the case, this time alleging “this court has before it evidence that Kent Nebel had an ongoing problem with alcohol resulting in two OWI convictions.” The brief alleged both criminal cases occurred during Nebel’s employment with the board, “justifying anyone to query whether his alcohol problems were clouding his judgment with regard to board discipline.”
Bergman’s initial petition to the court references a report that documents a total of 22 separate Board of Medicine investigations of Bergman that began in 1984 and continued through 2019. According to the petition, 14 of those investigations were closed with no action taken by the board.
Three of the cases resulted in private letters of warning from the board, the petition states. One of the three cases involved allegations that Bergman had inappropriately photographed a female patient’s pubic area, another was tied to claims of misleading advertisem*nts, and a third involved Bergman’s alleged “behavior in a hospital room,” although the petition does not elaborate.
Fraud allegations were settled for $685,427
Bergman alleges the board’s most recent investigation of his practice followed thefiling of a lawsuit by Peggy West, a former office manager at Bergman-Folkers Plastic Surgery.
That lawsuit, filed in October 2019, alleged that Bergman repeatedly and continuously “upcoded” patient services, documenting minor patient services as if they involved more extensive and costly services and then submitting the inflated charges to Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers for reimbursem*nt.
West alleged that when she objected to what she considered fraudulent billing, Bergman leaned forward toward her, stared her in the eye, and saidhis girlfriend, Robin Bartholomew, who was a full-time detective with the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, “knows the head of the Medicare fraud investigation department,” adding, “Don’t do something you’re going to regret.”
In a July 2021 deposition, Bartholomew stated she served as the manager of Bergman’s clinic while working full time for the sheriff’s office. She testified that she didn’t recall how she came to apply for, or be given, the job of managing a medical clinic and said her only prior management experience was running a horse-breeding operation on a farm.
West alleged that during an office party, Bergman showed her photographs of his penis and said he was sending the photos to Bartholomew. Throughout her employment, West claimed, Bergman regularly and openly made comments to, and about, women in the office by referring to them as “dumb c—-s” and “f—-ing morons.”
In February 2020, Dr. Suzanne Kuhnen sued Bergman and the clinic, alleging he had made inappropriate sexual comments to her and female colleagues while she worked at the clinic as part of a fellowship. She alleged Bergman referred to her as a “c—” and a “cow,” and then interfered with her application for hospital privileges. The lawsuit was settled out of court in March 2022.
West’s case was resolved with Bergman agreeing to pay to the United States $685,427, of which $340,731 was considered restitution. The agreement stipulated it was neither an admission of wrongdoing by Bergman or a concession by the government that all of its claims were not well founded.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
