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
Hospital Board Expressed Doubts about Lab Billing
CEO SUMMARY: Pass-through billing arrangements, particularly those involving clinical laboratory tests, have long been recognized by healthcare attorneys as having great potential to violate certain federal and state laws. Despite this fact, board members of a financially-struggling commu…
March 5, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
“More people took genetic ancestry tests last year than in all previous years combined,” declared Senior Editor Antonio Regalado in a story published on Feb. 18 by MIT Technology Review. He wrote that, just in 2017, the number of people who had their DNA analyzed with direct-to-consumer genetic g…
LAB BRIEFS
DUBAI TO TEST DNA OF ITS 3 MILLION CITIZENS RECENTLY, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS in Dubai announced a plan to conduct genetic testing on all three million residents. Experts say this is an unprecedented decision by any national govern…
Strategies to Offset Medicare Cuts to Be Shared at Exec. War College
DEEP PRICE CUTS to the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule was the big story of 2017. The big story of 2018 may be the widespread financial disruption to the clinical lab industry as labs see dramatic declines in their revenue from these Medicare fee cuts. One early opportunity for lab …
Insights from Jury Verdict in HDL, BlueWave Case
CEO SUMMARY: After a two-week trial, the executives of Health Diagnostic Laboratories and BlueWave Healthcare Consultants were found guilty of violating the federal False Claims Act. Defendants Tonya Mallory, Floyd Calhoun Dent III, and Robert Bradford Johnson were ordered to pay the Unit…
February 12, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
Because of the explosion in different payment systems, hospitals, physicians, and providers such as clinical laboratories are facing a new challenge: how to match a payment to a specific patient’s service. Modern Healthcare writer Tara Bannow reports that, “back when most patients paid …
January 22, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
In a first for Australia, a pathology lab was given authorization to use patient-collected cervical specimens from eligible women for cervical cancer screening purposes. VCS Pathology of Melbourne, Victoria, was given this authorization by Australia’s National Association o…
January 2, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
In Arizona, individuals and patients who paid for clinical laboratory tests performed by Theranos, Inc., are finally getting refunds. These payments are a result of a settlement between the Arizona Attorney General and Theranos. News accounts indicate that, over the time in 2013 thr…
December 11, 2017 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
To deal with a shortage of surgical pathologists in the United Kingdom, the British National Health Service (NHS) is looking at solutions, such as deployment of digital pathology systems. According to a story in Pharma Times, the NHS is negotiating with Roche Diagnostics…
TOP 10 LAB STORIES OF 2017
1. CMS Sticks by Decision to Deeply Cut Medicare Part B Lab Test Fees SHORT OF A MIRACLE, the clinical laboratory industry is less than three weeks from the single most financially-disruptive event of the past 30 years. On Jan. 1, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
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