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. And that was not the case at all. Whats up kids? Heres what I can tell you about the JY2, all right? Phillips, Youngs best friend, would often stop by the clinic to hang out and drink, according to former employees. He blasted heavy metal at his private practice and filled his Instagram feed with photos of himself smoking cigars. Young was late to the office almost every day. So hes a little out there. (Four years later, the health department received a complaint about this testosterone sideline, but the complaint was never assigned to an investigator, according to Pickering.) (A meandering guitar melody enters the background. One employee recalled him sometimes being too drunk to see patients. (The synthesizer takes over the harmony, traipsing up and down the melody line before it quiets and the episode ends.). Phillips popped off to a friend.). (The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). I accept all insurance, he told her. Khazan: Or stitch someone up after they cut themselves on a wine glass. Jeffrey Young was one of those people. Nurse practitioner Jeff Young, known as the "Rock Doc," and . The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? I have found accounts of at least 40 other medical providers in the country who have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. Rock Doc TV. Khazan: When I first started talking to Jeffs former patients, I thought I understood this story. Young grew up in Bethel Springs, a 700-person village near Jackson. Young did seem to be famous enough in Jackson, however, to reinforce his own grand vision of himself. Im too good for you because I got this money, or whatever. 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.*. 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. Branding himself as the "Rock Doc," he flooded his social media accounts with images of a party-loving lifestyle, vitriol for his "haters" and even a pilot episode for a reality TV show . 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. Youngs pursuit of fame culminated in his attempt to launch the Rock Doc television show. I had had back surgery, and I really had real problems that no one wanted to listen to me about. Khazan: In 2017, the very public world Jeff had built around himself started attracting a different kind of attention. They didnt openly harass anyone who criticized them. Everybody pay fucking attention worldwide because Im about to save this motherfuckers lifelive on Periscope broadcast! Who cares? All throughout the past few months, Youngs fans have papered his Facebook wall with loving messages. After the hearing, Young was jailed pending his trial, which is currently scheduled to be held this spring. Khazan: I talked to many of Jeffs patients. Young: (Over the sound of a pool-filtration system.) 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. They are often too under-resourced and understaffed to keep a watchful eye on all medical providers. He found diseases, for example, that other doctors missed. Sound design by David Herman. Though criminal cases against doctors and nurse practitioners like Young are still relatively rare, they are growing more common. Calles: You could just tell by the demeanor that that was there. (Stephanie asked me to use a pseudonym for her because she doesnt want her name associated with the case.) On Instagram, photos tagged #preventagenix show Young on a motorcycle, surrounded by women. 1:07. During one club night, Young bought Stephanie two drinks and his friends handed them to her. Our team also includes Gabrielle Berbey, Emily Botein, Matt Collette, Tracie Hunte, and me, Natalia Ramirez. And Im like, Oh. [A beat.] As the cameraman who filmed the pilot told me, Everywhere he went, it was like the Beatles., But the way in which Young gained some of these fans has become the focus of a federal court case. Khazan: LaRhonda didnt know anything about all of thisthe nursing board didnt make their investigation publicbut she was following him on social media. Downtown has an old-fashioned square, a few coffee shops striving for trendiness, and some suburban standbysMcAlisters Deli, Kohls, Chilis, Panera Breadall connected by well-maintained roads and featuring black oceans of parking lots. Thats the only way you can describe it. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at theexperiment@theatlantic.com. The nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young produced a reality-TV pilot in which he branded himself "the Rock Doc., The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Long after the criminal charges against him became known, many of Youngs patients and friends came to his defenseincluding some whom he had seemingly wronged. (A snare hit plays, and the music changes tone again. Khazan: The way I first got to know Jeff Young was through videos he posted online. And now we see the result. 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. Jeff didnt monitor M.Y.s use, or talk to him about the danger of combining drugs. I said, um, So what are yall doing after-hour? Hey, are you paying attention? Several people suggested suing for defamation a news station that reported on the incident. Khazan: And some of what she saw really weirded her out. To one patient, who he prescribed hydrocodone, amphetamines, and fentanyl, he said, I accept all insurance. Jackson, a city of about 70,000 people, looks like almost any midsize patch of America that sprang up sometime after the Pilgrims but before Microsoft. 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. 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. #saturdays at noon est to hear #nikkidarling chat with the #RockDoc Jeff Young II #musicmeetmedicine Starts at 12pm est. We put out calls and emails to dozens of Jeff Youngs patients. Despite the accumulation of evidence suggesting that Young was running his practice recklessly and endangering patients, he remained licensed to write prescriptions for five years after PreventaGenix opened its doors. They painted a picture of the kind of medical office where you might actually want to hang out. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. (A shudder, a gasp, then clapping and bubbling evolve into a background track.). Despite some patients praise for Young, the evidence that he routinely walked far over that line remains alarming. Instead, Young began by kicking Reitz out of the business, Reitz told me. But they helped create the opioid crisis all the same. Another compared Young to a brother and called my reporting disrespectful.. 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. No one could quite tell me who or what was responsible for Youngs transformation. I mean, he had his doctors lab coat on. Olga Khazan: At the time, there wasnt a lot of limits on pharmaceutical companies being able to tell doctors that. His small fiefdom of followers created a mini echo chamber, feeding back approval and encouragement. 1:32. Young: All right. They go on working. 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. Longoria: And what part of the crisis were you most focused on? Khazan: LeAnn Naylor was the secretary for the mayor of Jackson when she started seeing Jeff as a patient. Aw, shit! Yall partying in the office? [Chuckles.] Though Young claimed that he also fired drug-seeking patients, Gutgsell testified in a deposition that he would meet some patients after hours and write them prescriptions anyway. In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. To get from pharma lab to medicine cabinet, the drug needed to pass through one of the most sacred spaces in America. So, no, I cant say that. In November 2016, the health department threatened to file charges against Young before the board of nursing. Some people from the area said they had been harassed by Jeff and were afraid to speak out. In his frequent social-media updates, he would drink and flip off the camera. When one patient told Young over Facebook Messenger that she was in shitty health and about to jump off a bridge, he prescribed her a cocktail of several different drugs, including fentanyl. Right? 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. Do you feel safe with Mr. Young being out there? a prosecutor on the case, Andrew Pennebaker, asked Pickering in court. Thrash metal, heavy metal, speed metal, blues, classical. Purdue ad doctor: These drugswhich, I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medicationsshould be used much more than they are for patients in pain. Scott Deberry: You go to the doctor, and you tell them whats wrong with you, and they look at you like, Oh, its nothing. Khazan: There was this really big series of indictments that came down in 2019 where the federal government said, You know what? 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. From that day on, he saw him for everything. [Laughs.] Yes. Khazan: So Ive written a million stories about this. Calles: Yes. Not that theyre not watching internet porn. Though both she and Reaves said Young should be held accountable for anything he did wrong, Stephanie told me that she forgave him. She would get phone calls at her house, answer, and hear only strange whispers, she said in a court hearing. (The music crescendos before playing out into the break. Tanya Ballard: I think people are Just didnt like Jeff. And even then, I didnt want to hear it. You may not like me. 1986-present. (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 agency also searched Youngs cellphone. He made them feel comfortable in a way that no other doctor did. Scott Deberry: But after a while, when you read stuff, how many people could be wrong? Khazan: So, like, that doctor-patient interaction and how the opioids actually got prescribed. Case 18-11780-BLS Doc 45 Filed 08/02/18 Page 1 of 1041. I cant say for sure what the right course of treatment for LaRhonda was, and where opioids fit into that. Dang, Jeff What happened? 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