(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Surgeon complains of former licensing board director’s OWI arrests [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2023-10-13
A plastic surgeon sanctioned by the Iowa Board of Medicine is alleging the drunken-driving arrests of the board’s former executive director may be evidence of improper conduct in the handling of his disciplinary case.
The surgeon, Ronald S. Bergman, 74, claims in Polk County District Court filings that he’s being treated unfairly by the board and should never have been ordered to undergo a neuropsychological examination. To support that claim, Bergman is arguing that the board’s former executive director — whose departure in 2022 was never publicly explained by the board — had “alcohol problems” and was twice arrested for drunken driving.
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.
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 petition seeking 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.”
Last week, Humphrey 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 alleges 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.”
Criminal court records indicate Nebel was convicted of first-offense drunken driving in 2007 and was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and placed on probation.
The records also indicate that on July 15, 2022, Nebel was pulled over by Johnston police. According to police reports, Nebel refused to roll down his window or open his car door during the stop. The officer reported he had to break a window to unlock a door and extract Nebel from the car. According to the police, Nebel refused to take any field sobriety tests, saying he was too drunk to complete them, and a breath test showed he had a blood-alcohol level of .236 – almost three times the legal limit for driving.
Nebel was again convicted of first-offense drunken driving, sentenced to one year in jail with all but 10 days of the sentence suspended, and was placed on probation for one year.
Investigation followed fraud allegations
To support the argument that the board’s actions against Bergman are unwarranted, Humphrey has told the court that from the time the Board of Medicine commenced its investigation and the time it reached a settlement agreement with Bergman in January 2022, the board had allowed the doctor “to continuously perform surgeries for some 26 months and the board took no steps to halt his surgical practice.”
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 advertisements, and a third involved Bergman’s alleged “behavior in a hospital room,” although the petition does not elaborate.
Bergman alleges the board’s most recent investigation of his practice followed the filing 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 reimbursement.
West alleged that when she objected to what she considered fraudulent billing, Bergman leaned forward toward her, stared her in the eye, and said his girlfriend, who was also 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 her lawsuit, West claimed Bergman also began to make repeated comments to her that he “could make people disappear,” and that he had close ties to the “Mexican mafia.”
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.
Bergman’s attorney argues the board’s “invasion into Dr. Bergman’s mental health,” despite the initial complaint involving a possible neurologically based tremor in Bergman’s hands, constitutes a clear violation of Bergman’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The petition also suggests that the slow manner in which the Board of Medicine handled Bergman’s case is evidence that the sanctions against him are unjustified.
Bergman’s petition seeks a court order requiring the Board of Medicine to issue a press release stating that its past statements and its filings with the National Practitioners Data Bank, indicating it was restricting Bergman’s license to practice, were false and were issued without factual support. The press release should also make it clear that its prior press releases referring to an “alleged neurological tremor” were false and were issued without any medical diagnosis of such a condition, the petition states.
The petition also seeks an order compelling the board to apologize “for its unfounded actions and for its failure to recognize the meticulous attention and devotion of Dr. Bergman towards the medical needs of his patients over his 40-plus-year career.”
The board has denied any wrongdoing.
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