You may not like my sexy-ass beard. 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. Thirty minutes. And I remember texting him back, and I remember saying, Jeff, he is a grumpy, old, country man, and hes not going to be an easy patient, but something is terribly wrong. And he said, I got that covered too. So I get my husband up there. Young: So, the, uh, the sinister ministerthat would be me (Fades under again.). Khazan: Or stitch someone up after they cut themselves on a wine glass. But as I talked to more patients, they started saying things that really surprised me. Strippers, tattoo artists, and rock-band groupies saw a kindred spirit in Young and came to him as patients. He made them feel comfortable in a way that no other doctor did. You may not like what I stand for. Phillips popped off to a friend.). Looking for Jeff Young online? Through his lawyer, Michael R. Working, Phillips did not return several requests for comment. * This article has been clarified to more accurately convey the details of Gutgsell's plea. And I was like, My mind is blown. Years active. Sound design by David Herman. The daughter, Melody, actually works in her dad's vet clinic. 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. Supposedly candid confessions from Young about his life are interspersed with complimentary interviews with patients. In August 2015, Young prescribed MY what the letter calls a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. Khazan: A lot of them, unfortunately, went with it. (Court records do not contain the names of Youngs alleged victims.) PreventaGenix had a back door, and before long employees started noticing that some female patients would come in through it and go directly to Youngs office. Khazan: LeAnns story was similar to Tanyas and LaRhondas and Christis. I just asked him. A few months into their new venture, Reitz and Young were supposed to meet to discuss the running of the clinic. LaRhonda Scott Deberry: When I first met him, I thought maybe he was prejudiced. Whatever the inspiration, his new persona was good for business. Some speculated that it could have been drugs, alcohol, the prospect of fame, a divorce from his second wife the year after PreventaGenix launched, or a combination of all of them. They learned to ignore it. Khazan: To me, this felt immature, but it was all part of the brand. I cant say for sure what the right course of treatment for LaRhonda was, and where opioids fit into that. Calles: Yes. Youngs devotees have maintained for years that he was a great man on a noble mission, and that people who spoke against him didnt understand his radical approach. Unnamed guest: I cant believe he stabbed himself (Fades under.). A Professional theme for architects, construction and interior designers He decked out PreventaGenix with psychedelic artwork and set the stereo to loud rock. You may not like me. He didnt mind saying a curse word or two.. Off camera, Young allegedly prescribed 1.4 million addictive pills and had sex with female patients. All of his patients I saw when I would come would be all white. Im in the middle of a life-saving procedure here. Hes prescribing drugs that people want, another man added. Khazan: This is Tanya Ballard. In March 2019, the health department received a complaint that Young had inappropriate sexual contact with patients, and sent him a letter of warning without disciplining him. The music plays on.). Other doctors dont post pictures of themselves with motorcycles and scantily clad women, either. It was a story her daughter told her about a time she got sick. All right, guys. Ultimately, what hastened Youngs downfall is that some of the female patients asking him for drugs were undercover officers. Several people suggested suing for defamation a news station that reported on the incident. I mean, I worked at a bank for 15 years, and when youve worked at a bank and youve cashed checks, you have to judge people in two seconds. Sometimes the two men would fight, and broken glass would litter the floor. Longoria: Olga Khazan is a staff writer at The Atlantic whos been covering the opioid epidemic for the last seven years. But that did not put a stop to Youngs ambitions. His wife also loves animals and works in the same clinic. But the allegations against him point toward what can be permissible, even celebrated, in a medical system built on profit. The next morning, the office manager, Kristie Gutgsell, would clean up after them. You could see, almost, when you were talking to him, he was listeningand he was thumping that pen to the beat of the music. I am a, uh, nurse practitioner. She would wake up to find that all her car doors had been opened overnight. Multiple surveys show that people tend to trust health-care workers more than they trust many other professionals, including police officers and clergy members. He graduated from Musicians Institute in 1985, and is best known for his time with the thrash metal band Megadeth, appearing on the 1988 album So Far, So Good. At Youngs practice, the quantities of opioids were larger than many investigations that I conducted, Shirley Pickering, a nursing-board investigator, later said in court. Scott Deberry: Everyone in his office was all white. It feels claustrophobic.). Moreover, throwing some glimpse of lights to his personal life, Dr. Jeff is a happily married man. In another, he totters around with an empty bottle of bourbon and pans the camera over to Phillips, who is asleep on the couch. It moved so slowly in punishing drug-addicted nurses that some were able to get new jobs and steal narcotics while under investigation, an eastern Tennessee news station, WJHL, found in 2016. Khazan: Anyone online could watch him, say, biopsy someones skin while listening to hard rock. So it was kind of significant to me. His Rock Doc persona helped him connect with patients who might never have felt comfortable in a traditional doctors office. Khazan: Tanya had a different theory about where all the criticism was actually coming from. Theres clear evidence that opioid manufacturers knew the drugs were addictive, yet they marketed them aggressively anyway. The man says if he were ever shot, he would go to Young before going to the hospital. Alperovichs lawyer declined to comment.). Young: (Just after another person laughs.) They didnt have tattoos. They described Young to me as intelligent, as knowing almost as much as a doctor would knowor maybe even more. I am very nervous about it, she replied. I swear he didnt look at my leg for 30 seconds, and he told me exactly what it was, he says. If PreventaGenix staffers suspected that a patient was abusing drugs, they would sometimes try to fire the patient, by telling him or her not to return to the clinic. He was like, No, we do Botox and stuff for people, and dah-dah-dah-dah. Know his wife, age, net worth, family, 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. She appreciated that he asked about her grandkids. Weeks after the indictment made national news, the clinic was packed with people coming and going, one woman who worked in a building with a view of the parking lot told me. They liked his plainspoken approach to medicine, a profession typically associated with jargon and elitism. This requirement is waived, however, in cases where public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action.). Young: So Im gonna not have a cigar. Khazan: The one that caught my eye was this guy named Jeff Young, a nurse practitioner who called himself the Rock Doc, quote-unquote. Even after this, she returned to Young as a patient. He seemed, to his former employees, constitutionally unable to deny patients the pills they wanted, even if it was the last thing they needed. Youre just probably not feeling good. But they never believed us. Officials were well aware of the allegations surrounding him over this period: The states health department had received at least 13 complaints about Young since 2015. Dang, Jeff What happened? Helena Louvaris and Melanie Lupino, two of Youngs staunch defenders, both declined to speak with me when I called them back to see if they still supported him after he was jailed. Christi Calles lived 30 miles away in Lexington. 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. Its often called the invisible illness, because, even though the pain is very real for the person experiencing it, some doctors dont take it seriously. Lets see here, shes 23, Young says. To get from pharma lab to medicine cabinet, the drug needed to pass through one of the most sacred spaces in America. And whats remarkable about the Rock Doc is that he streamed his private interactions with patients online. He remarried in 2006. One of his patients, Helena Louvaris, told me that Young saved her life by putting her on a diet plan. So what, I dont go get fucked up at the country club with the rest of the stiffs here in J-Town? He would try to squeeze in even more patient visits each daysometimes well over 50, former employees sayand would either forget to document services or would document services he hadnt provided. Rumors started to spread in town that strange things were going on in Jeffs office. Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. This is Aalto. Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. Were tracing your fucking account now, so you better be prepared to reap the whirlwind of your bullshit., As he gathered followers, Young began to deploy his social-media presence to hunt down and intimidate his former employees and ex-friends, some of whom told me they felt threatened by Young and his followers. Whats up kids? They thought I was basically lazy and just wanted to have pain pills, just for whatever reason. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. (A moment of narrative silence. Additional music by Nelson Bandela (04 HIDDEN FORCES and Auddi Sun 01 131). Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. A restaurant called the Little Rebel displayed a Confederate flag. He would chitchat with his patients, ask them about their latest tattoos. Purdue voice-over: Often, it will be an opioid medication. People who criticized Young swiftly became his enemies. When PreventaGenix closed, Young was alleged to have failed to pay part of the unemployment insurance, federal tax withholdings, and final payroll for the clinic, according to a lawsuit filed by his former partners, Reitz and Patel. (A long beat of music. They do not have serious medical side effects. (The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. (They relied on messages obtained by agents during the investigations into Young.) There is a friendliness, too, that one associates with the South. Five other medical providers, just in Jackson, were indicted too. Early in the epidemic, Purdue gave doctors OxyContin fishing hats and swing-music CDs to encourage them to prescribe more of the drug. 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. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. Im very shocked. (The background music shifts tone dramatically to a wispy, light, contemplative energy.). Many medical providers are small-business owners who operate with limited oversight from authorities. An active and fun show following the life of FNP Jeff Young II at work and his life after work. Its heavy, and it loops. I dont. Doctors, in theory, would only prescribe to people who needed the drugs and would monitor patients so they wouldnt get addicted. Hey! I dont wear underwear. Through his attorney, he declined to comment on this and the other allegations in this story because of a gag order issued by the judge in the case.). The whole thing was Very Online. Still, the citys southernness peeks through. In July 2016, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into allegations that Young was overprescribing opioids. She once saw someone running across her yard into the woods. Watching this makes me really sad, one YouTube user commented on the Rock Doc pilot in 2019. M.Y. His vision was, evidently, to one day launch a reality series of the same name. According to a medical-board report, one employee recalled Young having sex in his office with a patient who appeared to be drugged; when Young left, she was passed out on the couch. As the nursing boards investigation of Young inched along, another agency launched its own probe into the Rock Doc. Khazan: And some of what she saw really weirded her out. Additional audio from Purdue Pharma, The Rock Doc TV Show, @JY2RocDoc, and Bat Pig Pictures. 0:06. Though criminal cases against doctors and nurse practitioners like Young are still relatively rare, they are growing more common. This distinction is important, because while nurse practitioners are functioning in the same capacity as physiciansordering and interpreting To date, none of the alleged victims in Youngs court case has come forward publicly to speak against him. She doesnt believe the allegations against him, and chalks them up to pure jealousy. On it, they found evidence of Young having sex with many different women, one of whom appeared to be motionless and had her eyes closed, a DEA agent testified later. (Dawn did not press charges at the time, and she declined to speak with me for this story.). Thats okay. Ill meet you there. Khazan: Like, for example, here he is sniffing a pair of womens underwear with his sidekick, a friend named Kevin. Khazan: Do you feel like Jeff has done more harm than good? At the beginning of the opioid epidemic, the autonomy of doctors to prescribe opioids was almost limitless, Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who researches mental-health policy, says. States largely rely on medical boards to regulate practitioners, but these entities have a reputation for leniency. One former employee told me its not clear whether Young was exchanging prescriptions for sex or just giving his many girlfriends the medications they asked for. When one video was apparently manipulated by one of his detractors and posted online, Young threatened whoever might have done it. Young would call these liaisons nooners or say it was tap-that-ass Tuesday, according to court testimony. To a different patient, he wrote, Come fuck me at my office right now., It is not illegal for doctors to have sex with their patients, though its considered unethical. So, uh, here we are, sitting by the pool. Some of his patients were police officers whom he would occasionally ask for favors. Despite some patients praise for Young, the evidence that he routinely walked far over that line remains alarming. Khazan: LeAnn Naylor was the secretary for the mayor of Jackson when she started seeing Jeff as a patient. But none of these barred the Rock Doc from getting drugs into the hands of patients. Longoria: Opioids would be a new kind of painkiller to treat not just acute pain after an event like a surgery, but also pain that was more mundane, like chronic back pain that patients would complain about for years, but which doctors didnt have a clear cure for. Julia Longoria: Over 20 years ago, pharmaceutical companies began to market the use of a magical pill. This episode was reported by Olga Khazan and produced by Alvin Melathe. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Patients say the Rock Doc helped them like no one else could. When it was getting close to the end of when I was going, it would be packed. Though both she and Reaves said Young should be held accountable for anything he did wrong, Stephanie told me that she forgave him. But, in theory, there should have been a check on all this. He pleaded not guilty to the . Some sought counseling, slept under their beds, or carried guns. Jeffrey Young wanted to give you a real look inside his clinic. But you know what? However, many of Youngs online supporters have remained loyal. Trust me, I got people, he says to the camera. Longoria: There are many pieces to the puzzle of how opioids found their way into so many medicine cabinets. We thought we would close out the daythe third Periscope of the daywith a little fireside chat. He blasted heavy metal at his private practice and filled his Instagram feed with photos of himself smoking cigars. To have a medical provider be polite to you, accept you, maybe even dig through your charts to find the root cause of your ailmentsit can be validating. Young did seem to be famous enough in Jackson, however, to reinforce his own grand vision of himself. Thrash metal, heavy metal, speed metal, blues, classical. Khazan: He had an account on Periscope, the live-streaming site. It fit neatly, at least, into a story I was already really familiar with: It was the greedy provider who was allegedly taking advantage of his patients. He found diseases, for example, that other doctors missed. Young was late to the office almost every day. Scott Deberry: When I first was going in the office, I could go in there and thered be maybe 10 of us in there. Around 2013, Young allegedly prescribed hydrocodone, a benzodiazepine, and Adderall for a patient whose visits he described as a concierge-type thing, Pickering said in court. (Fades under.). Longoria: Pharmaceutical companies marketed these drugs aggressively to doctors. ET on January 28, 2021. Scott Deberry: But after a while, when you read stuff, how many people could be wrong? Make and Model: The only Billboard Hot 100 entry for new wave greats The Cars with an automotive title to match their band name . So it just kind of, I guess, comforted me. And you can kind of look at it like locker-room talk . Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts, The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. Khazan: The way I first got to know Jeff Young was through videos he posted online. All of them said that they didnt think Jeff sexually abused them. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Listen to the trailer for, The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. Patients who might never have felt comfortable in a way that no other doctor did designers decked... Him, say, biopsy someones skin while listening to hard Rock someones skin while listening hard... 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