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
State of California’s COVID Lab Producing Inconclusive Results
Inconclusive COVID-19 test results and delays in reporting results continue to plague the state of California’s brand new clinical laboratory, located in Valencia. That’s according to reports by several news outlets in the Golden State. On Nov. 20, …
CMS Sends Cease/Desist Letters to Labs Lacking CLIA Certificates
CLINICAL LABORATORIES DOING COVID-19 TESTING and lacking the proper CLIA certificates to do so are receiving cease-and-desist letters from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first letters were sent on Aug. 12 and le…
Feds Revise Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute
CEO SUMMARY: It is essential that all clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups understand major changes in two new federal rules that take effect next month. Revisions to the Physician Self-Referral Law (also known as the Stark Law) and the Anti-Kickback Statue will have …
December 7, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Supply chain issues associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are about to disrupt testing for other infectious diseases, ranging from strep throat and pneumonia to sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). That was one important finding from the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) November …
Pooled COVID Testing a Success for New York Hospital Lab
This is an excerpt of a 1,552-word article in the November 16, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: Pooled COVID testing helps the clinical lab staff at the hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., do …
California Builds Its Own COVID Lab: $25 Million or $1.7 Billion?
CEO SUMMARY: California dropped a bomb on the state’s existing network of hospital labs and independent clinical labs when, on Oct. 30, it announced it had built and opened a new laboratory facility in Valencia designed to perform 150,000 COVID-19 tests per day. Now, existing labs…
UnitedHealthcare Delays Its New Test Registry Protocol Until April 1
CLINICAL LABORATORIES AND ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUPS working to register their tests with UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) new Laboratory Test Registry Protocol just got a 90-day reprieve. UHC has delayed the start date to April 1, 2021. …
NY Hospital Lab Succeeds with Pooled COVID-19 Testing
CEO SUMMARY: Pooled testing helps the clinical lab staff at the hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., do more COVID-19 tests when supplies might otherwise run short. Lab managers estimate this method has saved 5,000 test cartridges since May. Pooled testing also helps the physician st…
Palmetto GBA Tells Consultant to Take Down Test Price Data
CEO SUMMARY: Lawyers for Medicare contractor Palmetto GBA sent a cease and desist letter in September to a respected lab consultant, telling him to delete from his health policy blog a document containing Medicare genetic test price and coding data. In the letter, Quinn was directed…
New Twist: HHS Exerts Authority Over FDA on LDTs
CEO SUMMARY: In a recent memo, the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ general counsel rendered a legal opinion that FDA would need to issue new regulations to regulate LDTs. By stepping into this years-long dispute and saying that FDA cannot regulate LDTs through gui…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 10 – July 14, 2025
This issue is strong on different flavors of enforcement that clinical laboratories, whether they want to or not, will need to contend with. Lab stakeholders provide insights that medical labs need to brace for more action to counter pending test reimbursement rate cuts under PAMA. Also, this issue provides the legal and regulatory landscape for clinical labs’ use of AI and how it evolves with the technology. AI is creating legal uncertainty for clinical labs, especially around data privacy and FDA oversight of AI tools in diagnostics.
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