They liked his plainspoken approach to medicine, a profession typically associated with jargon and elitism. You may not like my piercings. They didnt drop F-bombs or smell womens underwear online. Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. They are often too under-resourced and understaffed to keep a watchful eye on all medical providers. Were going to take the worst of the worst. You ready? He found diseases, for example, that other doctors missed. Naylor: Yes, he does. I didnt know that. Together, they are the parents of three children and have seven grandchildren. Khazan: To me, this felt immature, but it was all part of the brand. I am a, uh, nurse practitioner. Lets see here, shes 23, Young says. Then and over the ensuing months, I spoke with dozens of Youngs friends, enemies, alleged victims, and former co-workers. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Khazan: Even LaRhonda, the retired teacher who had soured on Jeff, told me that Jeff was the rare provider who would take her pain seriously. 1986-present. (One employee, Karla Wright, testified later that she had never seen Young have sex with women at the office. Rather than suffer any real consequences for his allegedly reckless prescribing, Young continued to work as a medical provider for years. Khazan: I was wondering if your ex-husband still supports Jeff or thinks he was a good medical provider. But when he suggested it the way he did, I took it seriously. Alperovichs lawyer declined to comment.). In his frequent social-media updates, he would drink and flip off the camera. Then it rewinds into nothingness.). Part of the judges reasoning was that Youngs Facebook posts showed a propensity for violence., Young continued blogging from jail, somehow managing to write a few posts for a website that promotes medical providers rights to prescribe opioids freely. A year later, the Tennessee nursing board suspended his ability to prescribe most opioids and other controlled substances for two years, saying that he had prescribed them irresponsibly. Scott Deberry: Kinda made it start seeming like he was unprofessional. Calles: And I mean, he didnt dress like your average doctor. Rock Doc TV. He messaged at least five female patients about sex and filling prescriptions, prosecutors would later say, detailing the anonymized encounters in court. (A snare hit plays, and the music changes tone again. Jacksons cheeriness, though, is at odds with the populations somewhat grim physical health. Im too good for you because I got this money, or whatever. Several others dismissed the notion that Young could be sexually coercive. And hed stream from inside the clinic sometimes. There were reports of after-hours partiespossibly of Jeff having sex with his patients. And now we see the result. Rather than call for help, Young walked away and left me on the ground, she told me. Patients say the Rock Doc helped them like no one else could. Young: Even get all gussied up for tonight. He didnt pull any punches, she said. Dan Reaves, a local radio host on whose show Young occasionally appeared as part of a marketing plan, described Young as medically gifted. In 2012, Young was working at a cardiology practice in Jackson when, with a consultant named Rich Reitz and cardiologist named Dharmesh Patel, he set up a side business giving talks to doctors about treating heart attacks and strokes. Young cries at his sons fifth-grade graduation, then explains that hes so emotional because his nurses are having their periods. His indictment implicated him and two of his former supervising physicians, Alexander Alperovich and Andrew Rudin, and alleged that Youngs motives in prescribing controlled substances to his patients were often to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors. Alperovich and Rudin, the indictment claims, accepted money derived from the proceeds of the conspiracy in exchange for their purported supervision. (Both have pleaded not guilty. Khazan: In the pilot, he presents himself as more of a friend than a medical professional. I dont I dont even know what to say. Khazan: The one that caught my eye was this guy named Jeff Young, a nurse practitioner who called himself the Rock Doc, quote-unquote. Calles: I mean, the whole deal of him being in jail this long is completely unfair. A few months into their new venture, Reitz and Young were supposed to meet to discuss the running of the clinic. (Green, who has since cut ties with Young, would not comment on this when I reached him, but he told the Sun that he asked another officer to look up the information.). Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. The agency also searched Youngs cellphone. Sometimes he wore scrubs, but most of the time he had on jeans, scrub tops, and a rock T-shirt, and a doctors jacket. An obese man explains that Young helped him with his swollen leg. Khazan: I had a lot of Why on earth? questions: Why would he do this? In May 2019, shortly after Young was indicted, I traveled to Jackson to try to understand the place that gave rise to the Rock Doc. Calles: I mean, you have killersmurderers, I meanthat have not been in jail this long. Apparently she felt strongly enough about it that he wouldnt leave her alone if she went to see him. Later that month, M.Y. Naylor: My husband hadnt been to a doctor in years. Young: Listen, I am for the patient. Though many of these deaths have been caused by street drugs such as heroin and illegally manufactured fentanyl, the nations opioid epidemic was sparked by the kinds of painkillers medical providers prescribed. Who cares? All throughout the past few months, Youngs fans have papered his Facebook wall with loving messages. (Droning music, reflective and cool, plays.). After he opened the new clinic, Youngs sexual behavior with patients allegedly continued, as did the towns willingness to ignore it. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Khazan: Jeff had been good to Tanya in the clinic, which was an experience that she didnt usually have with doctors. Jackson nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young will await his opioid trafficking trial in jail, an appeals court decided Thursday. Young would call these liaisons nooners or say it was tap-that-ass Tuesday, according to court testimony. She told me that while she was a patient at the clinic, she had a front-row seat to Preventagenix getting more and more popular. There was no statement even made to the Feds. (Plucky yet funky music plays. Have you ever been to a doctor and you just didnt feel comfortable? Obesity and diabetes are rampant; so is chronic pain. The entire epidemic has been an unending story of doctors, pharmaceutical executives, and public officials blithely ignoring signs of danger. Khazan: In 2017, the very public world Jeff had built around himself started attracting a different kind of attention. During one club night, Young bought Stephanie two drinks and his friends handed them to her. Rumors started to spread in town that strange things were going on in Jeffs office. Khazan: Looking at all the allegations, I mean, its overprescribingoverprescribing to someone whose pill bottles had his name on them and who died of a drug overdose. But one thing that I was really curious about is how you actually went from having opioids being a thing that existed to having opioids be a thing that existed in peoples medicine cabinets. Like, all these doctors who are really out of line and just writing so many scripts for so many addictive drugs, theyre really not being careful at all. Before long, the three men hatched a plan to found a network of health clinics that would check patients cholesterol levels and offer diet and exercise advice. The cost of producing the Rock Doc pilot, about $2,000, was entirely paid for by the clinic, Gutgsell claimed in a deposition. Scott Deberry: When I first was going in the office, I could go in there and thered be maybe 10 of us in there. Doctors offices make money by billing insurance companies for the services the providers perform, but it was hard to do this at PreventaGenix because the documentation for Youngs visits was so shoddy. If you speak against me, she remembers him saying, youre gonna regret it.. Khazan: Tanya had a different theory about where all the criticism was actually coming from. All right, guys. Dr. Jeff is married to Petra Mickova Petra though she is his second wife. She doesnt believe the allegations against him, and chalks them up to pure jealousy. And that was not the case at all. Tanya Ballard: I think people are Just didnt like Jeff. Young began arriving at the clinic smelling rancid, with greasy hair, and the clinics money problems mounted. Young: That was what Im going to say. On my trip, I strolled by a glass case near the federal courthouse that held a large Bible opened to the Gospel of John. Nurse practitioners have played a key role in Tennessees opioid epidemic. Its a small town; people talk. Young failed to diagnose the mans hypertension and overprescribed to him, according to court testimony, and later the patient suffered a stroke. Khazan: And he posted dozens of videos there. Naylor: And I remember him saying, Bring him to the office. In confessional-style interviews, Young seems to enjoy offending anyone whos shocked by his approach. He gave Young total control over what was recorded. Heres what I can tell you. How far can medical providers go in giving patients what they want? Olga Khazan: At the time, there wasnt a lot of limits on pharmaceutical companies being able to tell doctors that. Khazan: LaRhonda was skepticalbut she was also dealing with a lot of pain. Employees I spoke with said he eventually was seeing 50 to 85 patients a day, compared with about 20 for the average doctor, and most of them seemed to be on opioids. Right? (The music crescendos before playing out into the break. LeAnn said that Jeff stayed for hours, changing IV bags and chatting with him. Khazan: So Ive written a million stories about this. I told him about this podcastexplained to him what a podcast was. In 2011, the couple got in a fight while visiting Panama City Beach, Florida, and it was determined that Young did throw, or shove, Mrs. Young from the bed to the floor, the police report reads. One of them was that I had the story all wrong. Some people from the area said they had been harassed by Jeff and were afraid to speak out. Young: Whats up, my friend? The cameraman who shot the pilot, who requested anonymity because he doesnt want to be associated with Youngs case, heard about Young through a mutual friend and visited him several times to shoot footage for what he hoped could become a reality show. At least 50 women are thought to have come to the clinic to have sex with Young, some of them allegedly doing so in exchange for drugs, according to court testimony. So, no, I cant say that. And were gonna send a message. They called it the single largest crackdown on prescription opioids in history. After the hearing, Young was jailed pending his trial, which is currently scheduled to be held this spring. Thats okay. Yall partying in the office? [Chuckles.] Through his lawyer, Michael R. Working, Phillips did not return several requests for comment. All of them said that they didnt think Jeff sexually abused them. (A moment of narrative silence. (Youngs attorney claimed in court that only about 25 percent of his patients were.) They do not have serious medical side effects. Khazan: Because I couldnt talk to Jeff, Ive spent more hours than I want to admit combing through his Periscope videos, trying to understand this man. Off camera, Young allegedly prescribed 1.4 million addictive pills and had sex with female patients. One other factor might help account for his long, illicit career: the sheer number of patients who stood by him, almost to the very end. Khazan: Which was exactly what she liked about him. Christi Calles lived 30 miles away in Lexington. Calles: I dont know. Khazan: In his Periscope videos, Jeff insisted it was all fun and games, and people were just criticizing him because of his style. While Youngs antics could be a nightmare for his staff, his pool of patients increased as word about his practice spread. In February 2016, he texted one of his opioid patients, a police officer named Jay Green. Once his colleagues were out of the business, Young began crafting a persona based around rock music and hard living. They dont want to touch you unless they have to touch you. In the past two decades, overdoses involving prescription opioids have killed more than 232,000 peoplethe population of Jackson several times overand the major players in the epidemic are finally being held to account. The biggest blow came in 2019, when Jeff was indicted by the federal government for overprescribing opioids, often in order to get, quote, money, notoriety, and sexual favors., In a court hearing, investigators described several Facebook messages between Jeff and his patients, identified only by their initials. But he, uh He was true to himself; lets say that. Tune in today! He was found in his bedroom, where the ambulance service discovered an empty syringe under his pillow and empty pill bottles on his bedside table that had been filled that month. Khazan: But she did remember this one hint shed had that something might be wrong in Jeffs office. Many medical providers are small-business owners who operate with limited oversight from authorities. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. Young got married, then quickly got divorced, according to several people who knew him then. In August 2015, Young prescribed MY what the letter calls a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. (Court records do not contain the names of Youngs alleged victims.) Dont worry, my tattoos dont like you either, one image reads. One person with knowledge of the case gave me a list of several women who, the person believed, were having sex with Young in exchange for drugs. They didnt have tattoos. Of the women who returned my calls, none wanted to speak on the record under her real name, but all denied that Young had sexually abused them. Actually very nice, yeah. (Stephanie asked me to use a pseudonym for her because she doesnt want her name associated with the case.) Supposedly candid confessions from Young about his life are interspersed with complimentary interviews with patients. He would still be allowed to prescribe testosterone and cough syrup with codeine, however. Thats the only way you can describe it. [Laughs lightly.] This is Aalto. ), Khazan: So doctors were kind of like, Okay.. He would chitchat with his patients, ask them about their latest tattoos. In the past five years, at least 40 medical providers nationwide have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. In recent years, the Justice Department has started coming for unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists, too. Pharmacists began to refuse to fill his prescriptions. Once again, there was an outpouring of support. [Khazan laughs.] Of course other doctors dont write as many prescriptions, the implication seemed to be. Over that time, his online following grew. At this point, the people of Jackson knew the full extent of officials suspicions about Young. Young cared for all kinds of people, some of whom didnt have money or health insurance. Purdue ad doctor: They dont wear out. The judge denied this request, in part because, he wrote, Young has chosen to not wear a mask or practice social distancing consistently in jail., In September, Gutgsell, Youngs former office manager, pleaded guilty to federal charges for her involvement in prescribing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose.*. Theres clear evidence that opioid manufacturers knew the drugs were addictive, yet they marketed them aggressively anyway. He refilled MYs prescriptions for Percocet and Valium, and also prescribed him hydrocodone. Khazan: He worked in the timber industry, and one day at work, he got overheated and disoriented. Then it fades out.). I am sick of people only judging you by what you do in your personal life, one woman wrote on his Facebook page in September 2016, when Young was charged with assault after a woman claimed that he had screamed at her in the parking lot of his office. People who criticized Young swiftly became his enemies. Fullington, who was also let go, told me she got a threatening call from Young. (Fades under.). Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. He exhibited a certain tenderness as he filled syringes and sutured skin. Khazan: Christi had really appreciated what Jeff did for her. [Chuckles.] She would wake up to find that all her car doors had been opened overnight. #saturdays at noon est to hear #nikkidarling chat with the #RockDoc Jeff Young II #musicmeetmedicine Starts at 12pm est. FNP Jeff Young Jr. shares his life with his fans and promotes a healthy and fun lifestyle to make you "young" at heart! The self-proclaimed "Rock Doc" is accused of trading powerful . Young: So Im gonna not have a cigar. The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. Do you feel safe with Mr. Young being out there? a prosecutor on the case, Andrew Pennebaker, asked Pickering in court. So it was kind of significant to me. Some of the pills had been prescribed by Young. No one else seemed capable of treating all her problemsthroat swelling, high blood pressure, attention issues. Khazan: A lot of them, unfortunately, went with it. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. Youngs pursuit of fame culminated in his attempt to launch the Rock Doc television show. They didnt try to become reality-TV stars. (Young has pleaded not guilty to all charges. She became his patient around 2016. As Young collected more tattoos and befriended more local bands, he began to attract a certain clientele. Khazan: Her husband had severe dehydration and was suffering from a heat stroke. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. Its gonna be a little cold, all right? On Instagram, photos tagged #preventagenix show Young on a motorcycle, surrounded by women. Every single time I went to that doctor and I left, Stairway to Heaven played. (There were different Jeff Youngs in [the Records Management System] and I had very little information so he was not added to the report, the police report states.) The Rock Doc affectations, Louvaris said, merely show that hes different from other doctors. Occasionally he would glare at his ex-wife Dawn, who was in the gallery. 1,274 likes. Im in the middle of a life-saving procedure here. Im Julia Longoria. (Fades under.). In July 2016, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into allegations that Young was overprescribing opioids. Jeffrey Young was one of those people. Youre just probably not feeling good. But they never believed us. a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. After-Hours partiespossibly of Jeff having sex with his swollen leg found diseases, example. This podcastexplained to him, and rockdoc jeff young them up to pure jealousy to attract a certain as! Up to find that all her problemsthroat swelling, high blood pressure, attention.. Confessions from Young dont like you either, one image reads with female patients about sex filling. 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