Hey! In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. Young: (Over hard-rock music.) (The DEA declined to comment on Youngs case for this story.) Tanya Ballard: I think people are Just didnt like Jeff. There was no statement even made to the Feds. Lets see here, shes 23, Young says. In July 2016, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into allegations that Young was overprescribing opioids. 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. Natalia Ramirez: This episode of The Experiment was reported by Olga Khazan and produced by Alvin Melathe, with editing by Katherine Wells, Julia Longoria, and Denise Wills. I am very nervous about it, she replied. Our team also includes Gabrielle Berbey, Emily Botein, Matt Collette, Tracie Hunte, and me, Natalia Ramirez. (Fades under.). Theres actually a diagnosis called white-coat hypertension. Its when your blood pressure spikes in a doctors office because the whole experience is nerve-racking. His followers across social-media accounts numbered in the low thousandshigher than a casual users, but a trifle compared with even a C-list celebritys fan base. And people in the pilot gave testimonials saying as much. He messaged at least five female patients about sex and filling prescriptions, prosecutors would later say, detailing the anonymized encounters in court. Thats the only way you can describe it. Naylor: (A long beat and a breath.) According to police reports and court records, his second ex-wife, Dawn, claimed that throughout their relationship Young repeatedly pushed, threatened, and attempted to rape her. Minutes after finishing the second drink, Stephanie fell face-first onto the floor. Kevin: And were going to ask our friendsour warriors out thereto put these folks in their place, because, you know, the Golden Rule. Young was late to the office almost every day. 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. Rumors started to spread in town that strange things were going on in Jeffs office. ), (The intro to a rock song plays, with a driving, pulsing beat. Were taking next week off to work on new stories, but well be back with new episodes starting April 15. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. Khazan: I was wondering if your ex-husband still supports Jeff or thinks he was a good medical provider. Early in the epidemic, Purdue gave doctors OxyContin fishing hats and swing-music CDs to encourage them to prescribe more of the drug. Furthermore, Dr. Young along with his wife and daughter Melody works at his clinic. Obesity and diabetes are rampant; so is chronic pain. Several others dismissed the notion that Young could be sexually coercive. Having hordes of fans seems to have allowed Young to buy more deeply into his own rock-and-roll fantasy, which in turn gave him the confidence to broadcast his life through even more videos and updates. He was like a friend. MY died on August 25, 2015, from an apparent drug overdose. Once again, there was an outpouring of support. Why didnt anyone try to put a stop to this? I just had a lot of questions about how could this happen., Further reading: The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. Young grabs them and takes a big whiff. Off camera, Young allegedly prescribed 1.4 million addictive pills and had sex with female patients. (Fades under.). I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Tennessees nursing board, the main agency that has power over nurse practitioners in the state, launched its investigation into Young within a year of PreventaGenix opening. M.Y. I just didnt feel comfortable. Aggressive marketing is one piece of it. LeAnn said that Jeff stayed for hours, changing IV bags and chatting with him. (Young has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Young: Listen, I am for the patient. Look at me! Khazan: And sometimes theyd even ask their followers and fans to back them up. He tied the knot with his beautiful wife Dr. Petra. Khazan: Jeff had been good to Tanya in the clinic, which was an experience that she didnt usually have with doctors. Its heavy, and it loops. Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. 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. Khazan: Ive talked to a lot of patients over the years who feel very uncomfortable around their doctors. ), Youngs sexual desires and need to please patients allegedly soon blurred together. He seemed, to his former employees, constitutionally unable to deny patients the pills they wanted, even if it was the last thing they needed. Another compared Young to a brother and called my reporting disrespectful.. Its gonna be a little cold, all right? He blasted heavy metal at his private practice and filled his Instagram feed with photos of himself smoking cigars. Youngs case provides a rare glimpse into the ways patients wind up addicted to the powerful painkillers fueling the national opioid epidemic. Am I a misogynist, or do women just like rough sex? Young asks himself in one video. The whole thing was Very Online. He made them feel comfortable in a way that no other doctor did. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis. Scott Deberry: I just didnt like all the bickering on social media and in that newspaper. They entered the office and ordered the clinics staffers to lie on the floor. He did know exactly what to talk to him about to make him feel at ease, and he impressed that grumpy old man so much that that was his primary-care doctor and the only doctor he would see. In February 2016, he texted one of his opioid patients, a police officer named Jay Green. Whenever he ran into trouble, his fans would fill his social-media feeds with pledges of support. Calles: You could just tell by the demeanor that that was there. The allegations against Young seemed to take a toll on him, though. (A meandering guitar melody enters the background. At this point, the people of Jackson knew the full extent of officials suspicions about Young. Jackson, Tennessee. Pharmacists began to refuse to fill his prescriptions. He would sometimes brag about having sex on his lunch break, sharing with his staff pictures of his conquests, three employees said. 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. You know that. 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. A few months into their new venture, Reitz and Young were supposed to meet to discuss the running of the clinic. He soon opened a new clinic, which he called GeneXis Health. States largely rely on medical boards to regulate practitioners, but these entities have a reputation for leniency. I accept all insurance, he told her. Though Young at first just seemed to go along with the project, he grew more invested after the first visit, the cameraman told me. Jackson Sun. Every time. Phillips popped off to a friend.). Scott Deberry: Kinda made it start seeming like he was unprofessional. I tried to reach out to women who Jeff was rumored to have exchanged drugs for sex with, but none of them wanted to talk on the record. Young cries at his sons fifth-grade graduation, then explains that hes so emotional because his nurses are having their periods. At first, Young seemed to Reitz like an affable, outgoing dad who loved rock and practiced medicine. Rachel Fullington, an early employee of Youngs, told me Young wanted the clinics atmosphere to be loose and fun, while the others wanted it to be more buttoned-up. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Lots of people refused to talk to me because they fear Young, but many others refused because they love him. Some of the pills had been prescribed by Young. We thought we would close out the daythe third Periscope of the daywith a little fireside chat. Similarly, Young appeared to get the benefit of the doubt from virtually everyone. Being around Young made her feel emotionally safe, she said. The half-dozen former patients who did agree to talk with me were mostly people who wanted to defend Jeff. 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. Were going to take the worst of the worst. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is currently in jail awaiting trial. He found diseases, for example, that other doctors missed. Khazan: When Jeffs indictment became public, LeAnnlike many of his former patientswas suspicious at first. In the past five years, at least 40 medical providers nationwide have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. To one patient, who he prescribed hydrocodone, amphetamines, and fentanyl, he said, I accept all insurance. I am a, uh, nurse practitioner. 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. JACKSON, Tenn. The end is nowhere close for three medical professionals charged in a federal opioid crackdown earlier this year. In September 2014, Young, Reitz, and Patel opened their first clinic and called it PreventaGenix. They thought I was basically lazy and just wanted to have pain pills, just for whatever reason. Young was, in short, a medical provider who acted like everyones best friend. This is a bunch of bull crap, she said. Khazan: Jeff was working as a nurse practitioner at a clinic called Preventagenix in Jackson, Tennessee. You may not like my sexy-ass beard. Khazan: The videos were sarcastic and loose, intimate in their own bizarre way. During one club night, Young bought Stephanie two drinks and his friends handed them to her. 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. Unnamed guest: I cant believe he stabbed himself (Fades under.). Young began arriving at the clinic smelling rancid, with greasy hair, and the clinics money problems mounted. We put out calls and emails to dozens of Jeff Youngs patients. Some sought counseling, slept under their beds, or carried guns. I dont I dont even know what to say. So it just kind of, I guess, comforted me. But Young was eager to let the world know that he was no typical nurse practitioner. (The music opens up into a technologic rainforest as synthesizers mimic birdsong.). He graduated from Union University, an evangelical Christian school, in 1995, then earned a degree from the University of Tennessee College of Nursing in 2003. This ingratiating tendency allegedly extended to handing out prescriptions. 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. Together, they are the parents of three children and have seven grandchildren. So you got to be a good judge of character. She told me that Jeff took her pain seriously. [Laughs lightly.] The clinic sat on a quiet road crammed with other medical practicesa sleep doctor, a dentist, a nephrologist, an orthodontisteach in its own brick McMansion. Im like, Im as outspoken as he is. 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. Longoria: And one of those worst of the worst providers stood out from the others. Rather than suffer any real consequences for his allegedly reckless prescribing, Young continued to work as a medical provider for years. Thank you for taking care of me, not just the sex and satisfaction but the Soma too, wrote one patient, referring to a muscle relaxer. And were gonna send a message. They called it the single largest crackdown on prescription opioids in history. They didnt try to become reality-TV stars. But the board has a history of letting suspicious providers go on practicing for years. Calles: Yes. (A moment of narrative silence. So what? 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. Even when they do, the boards are mainly composed of doctors and nurses peers, who can be reluctant to throw the book at one of their own, says Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt University law professor who has studied medical boards. Scott Deberry: And, you know, once you get around the tattoos and the way he talkscause he talks to you as if hes talking to you on the streets As long as he was going to take care of me and make me feel okay, or make me feel better, I had no problem with that. Scott Deberry: You go to the doctor, and you tell them whats wrong with you, and they look at you like, Oh, its nothing. 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. 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 . [Khazan laughs, then Calles emphasizes each word that follows.] Julia Longoria: Over 20 years ago, pharmaceutical companies began to market the use of a magical pill. And that was not the case at all. The scenes are meant to serve as a testament to the effectiveness of Youngs work hard, play harder ethos. I need you to find this fucker, he wrote, according to court testimony later reported by The Jackson Sun. The first move of any significant consequence for Young came in early 2017, when the DEA raided the clinic. [A moment of indistinct crosstalk.] Then it fades out.). Stephanie would accompany him to different clubs in the area, and wherever he went, she said, he was surrounded by hired bodyguards and friends she called bouncers, who were around for the times when he drank too much or flirted with women and got into fights with their boyfriends. (Dawn did not press charges at the time, and she declined to speak with me for this story.). I asked to speak with him for this story, but because of a gag order on the case, his lawyer declined interviews with me. The entire epidemic has been an unending story of doctors, pharmaceutical executives, and public officials blithely ignoring signs of danger. Longoria: The indictment against the Rock Doc alleges that he prescribed more than a million addictive pills, treated patients while intoxicated, and used his prescribing power to have sex with womenincluding women who were his patients. A staffer, who declined to talk on the record, asked me why I was writing about him. Calles: I dont know. One of them was that I had the story all wrong. Though he was not an M.D., Young christened himself the Rock Doc.. He was like, No, we do Botox and stuff for people, and dah-dah-dah-dah. You ready? Youre just probably not feeling good. But they never believed us. A woman I spoke with who has worked for seven doctors offices in the area estimates that about three-quarters of medical visits there result in an opioid prescription. LeAnn Naylor: I have not had a lot of positive interactions with doctors. Instead, Young began by kicking Reitz out of the business, Reitz told me. Phillips, Youngs best friend, would often stop by the clinic to hang out and drink, according to former employees. In 2014, Jeff started seeing a patient with the initials M.Y. Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. Moreover, throwing some glimpse of lights to his personal life, Dr. Jeff is a happily married man. To deal with the latter, the city, like so many others in America, has become ever more reliant on opioids. In one scene, he and his best friend, a pharmaceutical representative named John Kevin Phillips, broadcast themselves on the video-streaming app Periscope. 40 members in the TDBauto community. ), (What sounds like road noise plays in the background of a Periscope clip. Calles: I really am so thankful that he suggested that to me, because if he hadnt have, I probably wouldve never done it, because I wouldnt take anybody else seriously enough to even think about doing it. Shed come to see Jeff for a range of health issues, from diabetes to cystitis, and she just didnt buy the things people were saying about him. She was referred to Jeff by one of her friends. Scott Deberry: When I first was going in the office, I could go in there and thered be maybe 10 of us in there. ), Jeff Young: Are we live? And if you want to help other people discover the show, share it online with the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Longoria: And what part of the crisis were you most focused on? So what, I dont go get fucked up at the country club with the rest of the stiffs here in J-Town? Naylor: Yes, he does. Jeff didnt monitor M.Y.s use, or talk to him about the danger of combining drugs. Khazan: In one sense, I understand some of Jeffs patients defensiveness toward him. Listen to the trailer for. His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. 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. Stephanie had been in an abusive relationship and dealt with a slew of other traumas. 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. 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