Robert Michel
Until Robert L. Michel came along and founded The Dark Intelligence Group (DIG) two decades ago, the clinical laboratory industry and the anatomic pathology profession lacked a trustworthy source for information about the management and operations of medical laboratories. From its inception in 1995, The Dark Report quickly became the “go to” source of industry intelligence, innovations in lab management, and strategic market analysis.
This excellence in reporting has earned recognition from his peers. For example, twice Michel and The Dark Report have won national awards for best investigative reporting by the Specialty Information Publishers Association. In 2005, the award was for Michel’s coverage about how the anatomic pathology condominium laboratories (pod labs) operated by urologists and gastroenterologists came to be, who operated them, and how these owners marketed the AP condo labs to other physician groups. In 2009, Michel’s award for best investigative reporting resulted from his published interviews with Quest Diagnostics Incorporated when the company admitted that, for a period of 18 months, it had been reported inaccurate Vitamin 25(OH) D results because of problems with its laboratory-developed test methodology. The Dark Report’s story was picked up by The New York Times and was in the national news cycle for several days.
In his role as Editor-in-Chief, Michel brought unique capabilities to DIG and The Dark Report. His management training and diverse business experience—along with his skills as a concise writer and analyst—proved to be a winning combination for readers of The Dark Report. For that reason, Michel’s story has many intriguing elements.
Immediately prior to founding DIG, he had served in several executive positions for Nichols Institute based in Portland, Oregon, and San Juan Capistrano, California. This was during the time that Nichols Institute was an independent public lab company with annual revenues of about $280 million (prior to its acquisition by MetPath, Inc., now Quest Diagnostics Incorporated). He traveled extensively to many of the clinical lab business units owned by Nichols Institute in different regions of the United States and played a role in formulating effective market strategies in response to the emergence of closed-panel HMOs, capitated pricing, and full-risk managed care contracts, among other successful management initiatives.
Prior to his service at Nichols Institute, Michel served at three different Fortune 100 companies. These were Procter & Gamble, Centex Corporation, and Financial Corp. of America. Each was an opportunity to master new management techniques and apply them in different industries. Between these positions, he gained experience as an entrepreneur, having founded a real estate development firm and a general contracting company in the Southeastern United States.
Robert Michel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played rugby, a sport he participated in for another 22 years. He is a native of California and grew up in Santa Ana.
Articles by Robert Michel
Gearing Up the Laboratory to Exceed Expectations of External Customers
CEO SUMMARY: This is the third installment of THE DARK REPORT’S description of the Laboratory Value Pyramid. It describes “Level Three: Deliver Value that Exceeds Expectations.” This is the level where the laboratory organization now shifts its emphasis from internal operation of…
February 17 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
GeneCentric is a new lab testing company in Durham, North Carolina that was started by former executives of Laboratory Corporation of America. It intends to raise $20 million in a Series B capital offering. GeneCentric’s business model is to license molecular diagnostic tests, then develop the…
January 26, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking News
Interesting things are happening in the commercial clinical lab testing market internationally. In New Zealand, district health boards continue a decadeslong trend of squeezing commercial lab companies with the goal of reducing laboratory testing costs and eliminating redundancies. Currently the dist…
Lab Industry to Confront Major Issues during 2015
CEO SUMMARY: Will 2015 turn out to be a watershed year for the clinical laboratory industry? Not only are two federal agencies pushing forward with initiatives that will touch nearly every medical lab in the United States in the next 12 months, but other equally powerful trends c…
‘Nanotainer’ vs. ‘Microtainer’: Theranos Sues Becton Dickinson
BY FILING A LAWSUIT IN FEDERAL COURT against Becton Dickinson, Theranos, the ultra-secretive lab testing company based in Palo Alto, California, has once again put itself in the headlines. In papers it filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, …
In Florida, UnitedHealth Delays BeaconLBS Claims Decisions
LAST WEEK, ONE PART OF THE Beacon Laboratory Benefit Solutions pilot program in Florida was postponed. A UnitedHealthcare spokesperson provided additional information about this decision. “We have lifted the January 1 claims impact de…
Why ‘Bad Actors’ Continue to Operate in Lab Industry
OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES, pathologists and lab managers have regularly watched certain new lab companies burst on the scene and generate startling growth in revenue and profits by offering proprietary tests–often unsupported by published clinical studies that …
Phlebotomist Describes Questionable Lab Practices
CEO SUMMARY: While working in the office of a physician who was a client of Health Diagnostic Laboratory, a phlebotomist says he was instructed to write the same 10 diagnoses on every test requisition a doctor sent to HDL, a lab company in Richmond, Virginia. HDL is…
January 5, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking News
In Vermont, a multi-year effort to create a statewide single-payer health insurance program has failed. On December 17, Governor Peter Shumlin announced that the state would not go forward with its plans to create a health program called Green Mountain Care. “The bottom line is that… it b…
Is PAML to Be Sold? ‘No Comment!’ Say Execs
CEO SUMMARY: It is one of the 10 largest lab companies in the United States. Thus, if Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories in Spokane, Washington, were to be sold, it would trigger a major shift in the competitive market for lab testing service…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 14 – October 6, 2025
The Dark Report examines increasing healthcare costs for employers and how clinical labs can help those employers. Also, an in-depth case study shows how one hospital system regained its outreach program after originally ceding it to a national lab company, adding millions to the system’s bottom line.
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