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
Texas Company Operates 400 COVID-Collection Sites
CEO SUMMARY: In April, the federal Department of Health and Human Services contracted with eTrueNorth to operate COVID drive-through specimen-collection sites under the Community-Based Testing Sites program. The drive-through sites are an extension of non-COVID testing the company has …
Franciscan Missionaries Sells Lab Outreach Business to LabCorp
SINCE THE ONSET OF THE PANDEMIC IN LATE FEBRUARY, the nation’s two largest clinical lab companies have announced only two acquisitions of hospital laboratory outreach programs, one in June and one this month. Last week, LabCorp announced its acquisition of the clinical ambu…
New York Firm to Build CLIA Labs in Shipping Containers
CEO SUMMARY: In many respects, the COVID-19 pandemic is like a gold rush for entrepreneurs. Federal and state governments, colleges, employers, school districts, and other entities need COVID-19 tests and tens of billions of dollars are available to pay for such tests. This modern gol…
Covid-19 Pandemic May Be Creating New IVD Winners and Losers
WITH THE PANDEMIC NOW IN ITS NINTH MONTH, in vitro diagnostics (IVD) company executives and industry consultants recognize the market for clinical laboratory instruments, tests, and products is changing in fundamental ways. “Evidence accumulates that the pandemic is helping create …
Is HHS Ruling on COVID-19 LDTs Negative for Lab Reimbursement?
WHILE SOME LABS CELEBRATE THE PERCEIVED FLEXIBILITY that comes from not having to get an emergency use authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), there is a potential downside—difficulty getting reimbursed for the test. On Aug. 19, the Department of Health and Human S…
September 14, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Alphabet, Inc., the parent of Google, is expanding its COVID-19 testing activities. In recent months, Verily Life Sciences—a division of Alphabet devoted to research into life sciences—organized a clinical laboratory for COVID-19 testing. It obtained CLIA certification and is licensed wit…
FDA Will Have No Authority Over Laboratory-Developed Tests, HHS Says
This is an excerpt of a 2,029-word article in the August 24, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: A directive from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may have long-lasting implic…
HHS ‘Stands Down’ FDA on Its Oversight of LDTs
CEO SUMMARY: A directive from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may have long-lasting implications for the federal Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to assert regulatory oversight of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). In a statement last week, HHS said t…
DOJ Indicts Ten Individuals for Pass-Through Lab Test Billing Fraud
PASS-THROUGH LAB TEST BILLING SCHEMES involving rural hospitals and $1.4 billion in fraudulent lab test claims are at the core of multiple indictments announced recently by the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). Ten individuals—including laboratory owners, billing company…
Specimen Volume Returns at Dallas-based ProPath
CEO SUMMARY: Like other physician specialties, anatomic pathology saw a dramatic collapse in the number of daily procedures with a corresponding decline in cash flow as the COVID-19 pandemic hit with full force in March, April, and May. The good news is that the daily volume of tissue…
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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