(The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). Everybody pay fucking attention worldwide because Im about to save this motherfuckers lifelive on Periscope broadcast! Opioid manufacturers such as Endo, the maker of Opana, and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, targeted high-volume providers, in particular generalists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, who generally had less expertise in pain management and were more receptive to marketing from sales consultants, according to a lawsuit filed by the state of Tennessee against Endo in May 2019. His case before the nursing board stalled for two more years. Once again, there was an outpouring of support. (Patel did not respond to requests for comment.) There is a friendliness, too, that one associates with the South. 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. There was no statement even made to the Feds. Throughout Youngs year-long treatment of MY, Young failed to conduct pill counts, consult a state database meant to monitor the dispensing of controlled substances, and discuss with MY the risks of combining these drugs, according to the document. But I was willing to overlook all that, you know? Mellow and slow, it moves under the narration the way water moves through a stream.). Some of his patients were police officers whom he would occasionally ask for favors. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Thank you for listening. He decked out PreventaGenix with psychedelic artwork and set the stereo to loud rock. 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. (She did not want to be named for fear of jeopardizing her business.) JACKSON, Tenn. The end is nowhere close for three medical professionals charged in a federal opioid crackdown earlier this year. (Fades under.). They learned to ignore it. 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. Khazan: Thirty-one doctors and seven other nurse practitioners were busted in that same Justice Department sweep that caught Jeff. Updated at 10:28 p.m. 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. One employee recalled him sometimes being too drunk to see patients. Young neither admits nor denies the following allegations, Tracy Alcock, a lawyer with the state health department, said at the hearing, but he acknowledges that the departments proof would show the following: From August 2013 to November 2016, Young prescribed controlled substances in amounts and for durations that were not medically necessary, advisable, or justified for a diagnosed condition. The board put his license on probation for two years, during which time he could not prescribe certain Schedule II or Schedule III controlled substances, including drugs such as oxycodone, fentanyl, Vicodin, and Adderall. Hed also given her tips on how to eat better and how to lose weight. Many people trust doctors even when theyre harmed by their treatment, and a 2008 study found that people are more likely to spend time researching a new employer or a new car than vetting a new surgeon. Thrash metal, heavy metal, speed metal, blues, classical. In one post, tagged with American holocaust, he writes, I have always been a survivor and have scars of significance to symbolize thus, and this is where they have underestimated me and my resolve., In March 2020, after the coronavirus pandemic broke out, Young petitioned the court to be released to house arrest because he was on immunosuppressive drugs for a kidney transplant he had years ago and was concerned about the risk of complications from COVID-19. Ill meet you there. The waiting room often overflowed with patients. Young did seem to be famous enough in Jackson, however, to reinforce his own grand vision of himself. So you got to be a good judge of character. He exhibited a certain tenderness as he filled syringes and sutured skin. Why would you go to this doctor? Multiple surveys show that people tend to trust health-care workers more than they trust many other professionals, including police officers and clergy members. Khazan: LaRhonda Scott Deberry is a 54-year-old former teacher who lives in Memphis. Khazan: Or stitch someone up after they cut themselves on a wine glass. 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.). Youngs second marriage was already in trouble by the time PreventaGenix launched, and after his divorce he quickly found new girlfriends. In February 2016, he texted one of his opioid patients, a police officer named Jay Green. When the local news station, WBBJ, posted a story about Youngs case on Facebook, the usual chorus of defenders raised their voices. I dont wear underwear. Tune in today! Hed wandered off into the woods. Dr. Jeff is married to Petra Mickova Petra though she is his second wife. (The music changes tone, becoming a little more up-tempo and treble-heavy.). The cost of producing the Rock Doc pilot, about $2,000, was entirely paid for by the clinic, Gutgsell claimed in a deposition. You ready? Patel left soon after. And, to be honest, most of the time when you see a white male with a lot of tattoos, theyre usually not someone that hangs around with people of different races. (Laughs heartily.). Young appeared to operate more subtly. Hes a great doctor and never has he acted any way towards me but professional! one woman wrote. Longoria: And one of those worst of the worst providers stood out from the others. The camera follows Young as he treats patients, talks on a local radio station, dances with women at a club, and brags about drinking. Khazan: Tanya had a different theory about where all the criticism was actually coming from. We put out calls and emails to dozens of Jeff Youngs patients. Thats okay. Young began arriving at the clinic smelling rancid, with greasy hair, and the clinics money problems mounted. When it was getting close to the end of when I was going, it would be packed. Theres this moment in one of the videos that I keep thinking about: Young: (Over more pool filtration.) 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. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information. Its a shame, he told me, that Young got into so much legal trouble; think of all the people he might have helped. States largely rely on medical boards to regulate practitioners, but these entities have a reputation for leniency. 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. 14:46. After the raid, Young spent the night in jail on an outstanding warrant, and PreventaGenix closed soon after. Many people in Jackson seemed to see themselves in Young. Khazan: And some of what she saw really weirded her out. On my trip, I strolled by a glass case near the federal courthouse that held a large Bible opened to the Gospel of John. 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 has denied that hed had sex with the patient who appeared to be drugged.). Khazan: Jeff was working as a nurse practitioner at a clinic called Preventagenix in Jackson, Tennessee. ), Jeff Young: Are we live? When one video was apparently manipulated by one of his detractors and posted online, Young threatened whoever might have done it. Naylor: Yes, he does. 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. Young: So, the, uh, the sinister ministerthat would be me (Fades under again.). He may have that, but hes not Hes down to earth. In September 2014, Young, Reitz, and Patel opened their first clinic and called it PreventaGenix. At first, Young seemed to Reitz like an affable, outgoing dad who loved rock and practiced medicine. She doesnt think Young was the one who drugged her, but she believes nevertheless that she was drugged. Because he prescribed my opiates, and I took them as prescribed, and I had no problems with it. 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. Branding himself the Rock Doc in a self-produced reality-TV pilot, Young would wear band T-shirts and blast music as he met with patients; he sometimes broadcast appointments and medical procedures on the live-streaming app Periscope. I mean, you could just kind of tell you could trust him. But the board has a history of letting suspicious providers go on practicing for years. One admitted that Young had flirted with her. 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. This social-media stardom appears to have helped inoculate him against concerns that his loose approach to medicine could harm anyone. Yeah. They didnt openly harass anyone who criticized them. Khazan: But she did remember this one hint shed had that something might be wrong in Jeffs office. A staffer, who declined to talk on the record, asked me why I was writing about him. (The synthesizer takes over the harmony, traipsing up and down the melody line before it quiets and the episode ends.). Do you feel safe with Mr. Young being out there? a prosecutor on the case, Andrew Pennebaker, asked Pickering in court. Naylor: They just immediately hit it off. Calles: I dont know. But the allegations against him point toward what can be permissible, even celebrated, in a medical system built on profit. Khazan: He worked in the timber industry, and one day at work, he got overheated and disoriented. Jeffrey " Jeff " Young (born March 31, 1962) is an American guitarist. Khazan: Not long after Jeff opened Preventagenix, the Tennessee nursing board started to investigate him for prescribing high doses of opioids to his patients, even when he didnt have a good medical reason. (Fades under.). Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. They go on working. It doesnt sound like much of a sella middle-aged man doling out medical advice in a city midway between Memphis and Nashville. Jeffrey Youngs patients say he helped them like nobody else could, but prosecutors indicted him following a huge painkiller bust. (Young has pleaded not guilty to all charges. (The DEA declined to comment on Youngs case for this story.) (Droning music, reflective and cool, plays.). Christi Calles lived 30 miles away in Lexington. For the cosmetically minded, he hosted alcohol-fueled Botox parties. He was like a friend. (One employee, Karla Wright, testified later that she had never seen Young have sex with women at the office. Khazan: Which was exactly what she liked about him. The agents seized about 350 of Youngs patient charts and every computer in the office, according to Gutgsell, the former office manager, and the notice of seizure states that about 10,000 individual doses of hydrocodone were also taken. One patient she knew kept a cane in the trunk of her car and visited doctors offices with it in order to appear disabled so she could get more pills. I am very nervous about it, she replied. (Somber, reflective droning notes play up. 0:04. Julia Longoria: Over 20 years ago, pharmaceutical companies began to market the use of a magical pill. 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. Khazan: Anyone online could watch him, say, biopsy someones skin while listening to hard rock. No one else seemed capable of treating all her problemsthroat swelling, high blood pressure, attention issues. Heres what I can tell you. Youngs pursuit of fame culminated in his attempt to launch the Rock Doc television show. Calles: I just wasnt getting the care I needed. 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. Young seemed eager to hire lots of staff, but would end up firing them later. Its gonna be a little cold, all right? Lots of people refused to talk to me because they fear Young, but many others refused because they love him. Calles: And I mean, he didnt dress like your average doctor. Then it rewinds into nothingness.). 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.
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