Bill Cosby diagnosing fellow inmates as Dr. Huxtable: 'He is accepting appointments'

Bill Cosby is reportedly offering medical advice to fellow inmates as he pretends he's Dr. Cliff Huxtable, the character he played on "The Cosby Show" for nearly eight years.

An insider told Radar Online that the 81-year-old comic "believes he learned a lot about how to cure people and speak to patients after playing Dr. Huxtable," going so far as to tell friends that medical professionals at Pennsylvania's SCI Phoenix state prison are "overeducated, unintelligent children with a clipboard" that don't know what they're doing.

Cosby, who will serve at least three years -- and up to 10 -- behind bars for sexual assault, is reportedly spending his time advising a growing list of patients on dieting, diagnosing their illnesses and recommending natural supplements.

"He is accepting appointments from inmates to help diagnoses anything from a cold to obesity," the source said. "If he thinks they're incurable, he refers them to the infirmary with a 'preliminary diagnosis.'"

"He told us that he wore a bedsheet like an 'apron' to get into character," the insider went on. "He said his medical skills are 'a tad rusty' since he played Dr. Huxtable, but he's still 'hip' to the 'role.'"

Though the claims read as blasphemous, Cosby's longtime publicist, Andrew Wyatt, actually confirmed the claims.

"[Cosby] has regular and in-depth discussions about getting better nutrition for the residents," he said. "Getting them on natural supplements because residents and officers have major health problems."

Not only that, but the staff at Cosby's prison are reportedly humoring his bizarre antics in an effort to avoid any conflict within.

"[An inmate] was told to follow along with whatever Cosby says," the inmate's relative said. "He's old, so the prison staff just want no problems. He hopes to get a job in the infirmary, this way they keep him in there. The prison does not intend on moving him, so we just play along to make him feel better."