AI Summary
5 min readThe Doctor Who Prescribed Death
On December 17, 2009, 21-year-old Joey Rivero drove 350 miles from Arizona State University to a strip mall clinic in suburban Los Angeles. He was a Dean's List student scheduled to graduate in the spring, not a drug addict. After a brief consultation with Dr. Lisa Singh, he walked out with prescriptions for OxyContin, Xanax, and the muscle relaxant Soma. Nine days later, after attending a campus party, Joey went to sleep and never woke up. His mother April found empty vials in his room bearing the name of the doctor who had seen him for all of a few minutes.
A Clinic Built on Cash and Pills
Dr. Lisa Singh earned her medical degree from Michigan State University in 1996. By 2005, she had joined her husband's Advanced Care AAA Medical Clinic in Rowland Heights, California. From the outside, it looked legitimate—a clean reception area in a strip mall just off the highway. But behind the reception doors, hallways were stacked to the ceiling with boxes and paperwork. This was a volume business.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of American Greed Podcast
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Grainger and Wayfair Ads** - Two sponsor segments for Grainger industrial supplies and Wayfair furniture.
- 2 (01:20) **Introducing Dr. Lisa Singh** - The episode opens with the premise: an LA doctor making millions from cash-only painkiller prescriptions.
- 3 (01:49) **The First Overdose Call** - A 911 call from Singh’s own clinic in April 2008 reveals a patient overdosing in the waiting room.
- 4 (02:08) **Joey Rivero’s Story** - The tragic case of Joey Rivero, a 21-year-old Arizona State student who died nine days after a single visit to Singh.
- 5 (02:56) **April Rivero’s Outrage** - April discovers her son’s death was linked to Singh and finds online accusations that Singh is a “drug dealer in a white coat.”
- 6 (03:24) **Inside the Pill Mill** - A description of Singh’s clinic: a legitimate-looking front hiding a high-volume, cash-only prescription factory.
- 7 (04:23) **The Volume of Prescriptions** - Between 2007 and 2010, Singh wrote 27,000 prescriptions—averaging 40 per day—with patients often going in multiple at a time.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
L.A. doctor Lisa Tseng is no run of the pill mill "Dr. Feelgood". She's a cold-hearted murderer in a lab coat. (Original television broadcast: 3-13-2017) Want to binge watch your Greed? The latest episodes at: https://www.cnbc.com/american-greed/
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
More from this podcast
American Greed Podcast →