A prominent plastic surgeon who two years ago paid more than $800,000 to settle claims of improper Medicare and Medicaid billing is now suing a number of his former attorneys, claiming that it was their bad advice that left him stuck with the bill.
Dr. Ronald Bergman’s lawsuit brings claims against Des Moines law firms Brown Winick Graves Gross and Baskerville; Shindler Anderson Goplerud & Weese; and the Weinhardt Law Firm; as well as the Des Moines branch of Dorsey & Whitney; and five individual attorneys at those firms.
Bergman’s suit accuses all of them of negligence and breach of contract in the legal services they provided him, and also accuses one attorney of violating Bergman’s privacy. Bergman claims he was never advised to self-report the “alleged billing irregularities” and that his attorneys failed to explore whether MercyOne Medical Center was legally responsible for the billings in question. A spokesperson for MercyOne, which is not named as a defendant, declined to comment.