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
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…
Quest Reports 46% Decline in New Cancer Diagnoses in March
ONCE SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDERS WERE ENACTED IN MARCH because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new diagnoses of cancer declined sharply in the United States. Newly-published data confirms this fact. The data also support the warnings of anatomic pathologists that—because of the pandemi…
Wisconsin Lab Network Feeds Valuable Data to State Health Lab
CEO SUMMARY: From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 138-member Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network has reported to the state health lab the number of COVID-19 tests, the number of positive results, as well as other data that includes data on lab testing supplies and ca…
Thermo–Qaigen Merger Stopped, More IVDs Report Q2 Earnings
EACH TIME A MAJOR IN VITRO DIAGNOSTICS (IVD) COMPANY reports its quarterly earnings, clinical lab executives and pathologists gain useful new perspectives as to how the COVID-19 pandemic is fueling demand for IVD instruments, tests, and lab consumables. In this round-up of the most r…
CMS Publishes Proposed 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
MEDICARE’S PROPOSED PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE (PFS) rule was announced on Aug. 4, 2020. The rule had one positive development for clinical laboratories and hospital laboratory outreach programs and a negative development for anatomic pathologists. Clinical laboratories and hospital outreach lab…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 14 – October 6, 2025
The Dark Report examines increasing healthcare costs for employers and how clinical labs can help those employers. Also, an in-depth case study shows how one hospital system regained its outreach program after originally ceding it to a national lab company, adding millions to the system’s bottom line.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
Lab leaders rely on THE DARK REPORT for actionable intelligence on important developments in the business of laboratory testing. Maximize the money you make-and the money you keep! Best of all, it is released every three weeks!
Sign up for TDR Insider
Join the Dark Intelligence Group FREE and get TDR Insider FREE!
Never miss a single update on the issues that matter to you and your business.