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
2020 Rankings of the World’s Largest IVD Corporations
IN VITRO DIAGNOSTICS (IVD) MANUFACTURING continues to be dominated by a handful of companies, all of which sell their products worldwide. As the rankings below demonstrate, for 2020, just 11 companies accounted for 82.7% of international IVD sales. The …
Comment Period Closing on Federal Surprise Billing Rule
PATHOLOGY GROUPS AND CLINICAL LABS HAD UNTIL SEPTEMBER 7 to comment on an interim final rule that provides federal protections against surprise billing and limits out-of-network (OON) cost sharing under many of the circumstances in which surprise bills arise most frequently….
September 7, 2021 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
New diagnoses of cancer in the United States fell by almost 30% in the early months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. That’s one conclusion in a paper authored by Quest Diagnostics and published on Aug. 31, in JAMA Network Open. Quest looked at the new diagnoses of eight common types of can…
Insurers Get Aggressive with Years-Old Audits, Searching for Lab Overpayments
This is an excerpt of a 1,971-word article in the July 26, 2021 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: Not only are health insurers looking back to find lab overpayments and funds paid erroneously, but…
Insurers Get Aggressive with Years-Old Audits
CEO SUMMARY: Not only are health insurers looking back to find overpayments and funds paid erroneously, but payers also are requiring documentation for overpayments. If clinical labs and anatomic pathology groups do not appeal such claims quickly, they may be liable for any amount i…
Record 600 Pathologist Jobs Open Nationwide
CEO SUMMARY: Demand for top-level pathologists is surging. A strong rise in the number of job openings for pathologists results from a combination of factors, some related to COVID-19. Now that physicians are seeing patients again, the number of specimens has risen after falling las…
Many Patients in United Kingdom Not Getting Speedy Diagnosis
RECENT NEWS REPORTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the ongoing problem of lengthy delays in diagnosis of patients within the National Health Service (NHS). This is particularly true of delays for patients waiting on results of their cancer tests….
India’s Neuberg Diagnostics Expands into U.S. Market
“Our idea is to enhance the access and affordability for next-generation techniques, meaning molecular diagnostics, genomics, pathology, digital pathology, proteomics, metabolomics, and all that. This is the spirit behind Neuberg Diagnostics. —GSK Velu, PhD, BPharm …
COVID-19 Lab Test Prices Give Some Health Plans ‘Indigestion’
HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS CONTINUE TO BE UNHAPPY with the higher prices they are charged for COVID-19 tests by out-of-network clinical laboratories. That is one theme in a report on COVID-19 test prices published by a health insurance trade group. In its…
August 16, 2021 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced ex-CEO of the now-defunct Theranos, continues to be in the news. In the past several weeks, news reports indicate that she gave birth to a child, but whether it is a boy or a girl has not been reported. Also in recent weeks, attorneys have been in court arguing …
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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