A Geneva woman is alleging that she was referred by the Illinois Medicaid department to see a doctor whose state medical license had been suspended after he allegedly sexually assaulted another woman.
Dr. Mark G. Lewis was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in November 2012. “He also allegedly had an inappropriate behavior with another patient,” the state said.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspended Lewis’ license in June.
Lewis could not reached for comment.
But the State of Illinois allegedly directed Anne Metrik, 33, to see Lewis as her primary care physician, after his license to practice as a doctor had been suspended.
Metrik did not show up for that appointment after she became aware of the allegations while looking for the address of Lewis’ practice on Google.
“From there, I called the state twice, and I was like, “You guys just appointed me a guy who is suspended, has no license and criminal things. And they were like, ‘Oh, OK, well I’ll just give you a new one,’ ” Metrik said. “They didn’t really seem to care.”
A spokeswoman for the Illinois Medicaid department said officials were very disappointed when they heard Metrik’s complaints.
“We’ve launched a full investigation and we’ve put in place procedures to make sure this never happens again,” said Joanne von Alroth, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
Alroth said Illinois Medicaid department officials had already directed contractors who handle enrollment phone calls to start reporting patient safety issues to the state. License checks are being increased, and Lewis has been removed from the Medicaid list, she said.
