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
Labs, AP Groups Confused about UnitedHealthcare’s Test Registry
CONFUSION CONTINUES among clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups about how they should comply with UnitedHealthcare’s new Laboratory Test Registry Program. The program goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, but labs and pathology groups must register all tests and testing procedure…
October 26, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
In Houston, an 18-year-old high school student started a mobile laboratory company to provide COVID-19 tests to home-bound patients. As the youngest emergency medical technician in Texas, Taft Foley, III, saw the need for this service. Texas Mobile Medical Labs is the name of his company a…
Medicare Pays 500% More for Molecular Test Claims
CEO SUMMARY: Rapid growth in what Medicare spent for molecular tests in recent years may lead federal investigators to increase scrutiny of fraudulent billing for clinical laboratory and molecular pathology tests, according to a lab consultant who has tracked such spending in recent y…
DOJ $6B Fraud Crackdown Charges 345 Defendants
CEO SUMMARY: Department of Justice cases involving clinical labs or molecular test claims may represent about half (or about $3 billion) of the total fraudulent claims. Those claims stem from genetic testing, urine-drug and other tests, and healthcare services, the DOJ said. In additi…
High-Complexity Mobile Labs for COVID-19 Testing
CEO SUMMARY: Demand for high-complexity mobile coronavirus testing facilities is high, according to the CEO of a start-up company building 25 clinical labs in mobile trailers that can do hundreds of tests per eight-hour day. Employers, schools, event organizers, and other entities all…
LIS and Lab Informatics Vendors Report Second Quarter Earnings
IT’S BEEN A CHALLENGING YEAR for companies that sell laboratory information systems (LIS) to the nation’s clinical laboratories. Because of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, labs have delayed decisions to acquire or upgrade their existing LIS systems, as well as previously-scheduled installs of new o…
UnitedHealth Sets More Billing Rules for Labs, Pathologists
SUBMITTING CLINICAL LABORATORY AND PATHOLOGY TEST CLAIMS to UnitedHealthcare (UHC) will be more complex after the nation’s largest health insurer announced three significant changes in its claims processing procedures. The three changes involve: • Requests for refunds from anatomic pa…
October 5, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Guess who will be partnering with the US Department of Veterans Affairs to support its wider use of digital pathology? It’s Google! Last month, it was announced that the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) of the Department of Defense (DoD) had selected Google …
Will HHS Ruling on COVID-19 LDTs Be Good or Bad for Lab Reimbursement?
This is an excerpt of a 1,028-word article in the September 14, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. WHILE SOME LABS CELEBRATE THE PERCEIVED FLEXIBILITY that comes from not having to get an …
Understanding COVID-19’s Changes to Lab Industry
CEO SUMMARY: With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic about to enter its eighth month in the United States, it remains difficult to predict whether the pandemic will strengthen with the fall influenza season or steadily diminish. What is clear to most pathologists and clinical laboratory executiv…
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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