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
XIFIN to Open New Office in South Carolina for Lab Billing
SINCE FEBRUARY, THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE VACCINATED grew steadily even as the number of tests for COVID-19 declined sharply in the United States. But overall test volume has remained steady at 130% of pre-pandemic levels, said Brian Kemp, Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations for XIFIN,…
Amazon Now Interested in Home Testing Services
CEO SUMMARY: In the past year, internet retailing giant Amazon has built sizeable clinical laboratories in the United States and the United Kingdom. Now it has regulatory clearance to sell a molecular COVID-19 test to consumers for home collection. Comments made in the past month by…
CMS Shuts Missouri Lab Due to ‘Immediate Jeopardy’
CEO SUMMARY: CMS ordered Gamma Healthcare to close its two labs, revoked the owners’ CLIA licenses, prohibited them from operating a lab for two years, and ordered payment of more than $55,000 in civil penalties. The two lab facilities had been running COVID-19 and other tests for…
Benefits Investigation Is Growing Issue for Genetic Testing Labs
QUIETLY AND WITH LITTLE NEWS COVERAGE, a new complication is challenging clinical laboratories that offer genetic testing. It involves a steady growth in the number of patients who do a “benefits investigation” before allowing their physician to order a genetic test….
July 6, 2021 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Did the SARS-CoV-2 virus infect people in the United States earlier than the first case diagnosed on Jan. 19, 2020? A newly-published study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, says there is evidence of COVID-19 infections in December 2019. The research team included scientists from the Nationa…
New Primary Care Providers May Change Who Buys & Who Orders Lab Tests
This is an excerpt of a 2,445-word article in the June 14, 2021 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: This first installment in our series describes why market forces are at work to create a new playe…
Whistleblower Lab Manager Files Response to PerkinElmer Lawsuit
IN A DAVID-VERSUS-GOLIATH-LIKE BATTLE, perhaps the most unusual lawsuit in decades involving clinical laboratory operations and compliance is unfolding in a federal courthouse in California. In this case, a multi-billion-dollar in vitro diagnostics (IVD) company is suing a laboratory manager w…
MedPAC Advises Congress on Lab-Data Reporting
CEO SUMMARY: For years, the clinical lab industry has sought unsuccessfully to get the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to address the inequities in the payment formula CMS adopted after Congress passed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA). In April, the la…
New Players May Alter Who Buys & Who Orders Lab Tests
CEO SUMMARY: This first installment in our series describes why market forces are at work to create a new player in healthcare that will transform the lab testing marketplace as we know it today in two ways. First, a new category of primary care providers has the potential to eventu…
Getting Payer Coverage for New Tests Continues to Be Difficult
EVERY YEAR, IT BECOMES TOUGHER FOR CLINICAL LABORATORIES WITH NEW GENETIC AND OTHER TESTS to obtain favorable coverage decisions by government and private payers. Not only does it take longer to get a decision from a payer, but payers today want to see …
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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