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
CYP450 Testing To Have Major Clinical Impact
CEO SUMMARY: Pharmacogenomics, companion diagnostics, “personalized prescription drug therapy”—by any name, use of molecular diagnostics to guide clinicians in the prescribing and dosing of drugs is about to expand exponentially. Some experts predict that CYP450 testing alone will …
CYP450 Plays Major Role In Drug Metabolization
CEO SUMMARY: Each year, over 100 million new prescriptions are written for two classes of drugs with metabolic pathways affected by genetic variations in cytochrome P450. There are strong clinical arguments in favor of testing individuals for these genetic mutations to determine whether t…
Payers Want Patients to Shop Prices at Doctors’ Offices
PRICE SHOPPING BY PATIENTS is getting major encouragement from the nation’s largest health insurance companies. But the big surprise is the proactive steps some insurers are taking to involve patients in decisions about their healthcare. Take, for instance, a service that will let patients enter t…
Placenta Registry Stirs Unwarranted Controversy
CEO SUMMARY: On the surface, the “exposé” published by The Oregonian newspaper on February 12 seemed designed to sensationalize an effort by local obstetricians, hospitals, and pathologists to do a better job of evaluating placentas taken from patients who had experienced a difficult…
New Guidelines to Require Single-Patient Hospital Rooms
PATIENT SAFETY INITIATIVES are about to trigger another major change to the American healthcare system—a standard for single-room occupancy in hospitals. On March 22, 2006, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the …
Victorville Community Hospital, Quest Diagnostics, ASCP, MIME
ASCP ACQUIRES MIME’S CYTOLOGY TRAINING AND PROFICIENCY TESTING IT WAS A BIG BREAK for pathologists and cytotechnologists involved in Pap testing. In a deal announced at the end of February, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) has acquired “the complete cyt…
April 10, 2006 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Another private lab company appears to have sold for a strong price. On March 21, 2006, American Capital Strategies Ltd. of Bethesda, Maryland, announced that it had invested $79.5 million in Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., a drugs-of-abuse testing laboratory bas…
CMS Defers MUE Edits Until After Jan. 1, 2007
CEO SUMMARY: Medicare officials have granted a temporary respite on the troubling proposal to institute service restrictions per patient on some 80 pathology CPT codes and 1,100 clinical laboratory codes. These proposals are part of a new round of Medically Unbelievable Edits (MUEs). CMS …
Geisinger’s Coag Clinics Located in Docs’ Offices
CEO SUMMARY: It was six years ago when Geisinger Health System pushed laboratory testing and pharmacy services closer to the patients and referring physicians. By establishing coagulation clinics in six multi-specialty clinic sites, Geisinger ha…
Christian Hospital Laboratory Goes Lean with Solid Results
CEO SUMMARY: As part of a major restructuring program under way at Christian Hospital in St. Louis, Laboratory Administrator Bette J. Stanley decided to apply Lean quality management methods in projects to improve work processes in phlebotomy and the chemistry department. Using internal q…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 15 – October 27, 2025
The Dark Report examines the momentous decision by the VA to switch accreditors from The Joint Commission to CAP. Also, we analyze retractions in pathology journals to gain insight into scientific fraud.
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.