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
Toronto Pathologists Use Whole-Slide Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It was the “frozen section problem” and productivity issues that led pathologists at the three-hospital University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto to implement a fully-digital pathology system with whole-slide imaging in 2006. Use of digital, whole-slide …
Is Digital Path Imaging Ready for Prime Time?
CEO SUMMARY: Digital pathology imaging systems are finding uses in all phases of drug discovery (discovery, pre-clinical, clinical trials), as well as education, research, and clinical. One hurdle to widespread adoption of fully digitized, whole-slide pathology imaging systems is FDA clea…
July 7, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
GI Pathology, PLLC, of Memphis, Tennessee, announced that it has contracted to be a national gastrointestinal (GI) pathology laboratory provider with CIGNA HealthCare of Hartford, Connecticut. It also has a five year, national provider contract with UnitedHea…
NPI Rules Slow Payments to Pathology Groups, Labs
CEO SUMMARY: New rules requiring use of National Provider Identification (NPI) numbers took effect on May 23. Since then, Medicare carriers and payers nationwide have rejected claims from pathologists and other providers that do not comply with the new NPI rules. A missing NPI on just one…
GE, UPMC Create Company for Digital Path Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new joint venture with the potential to transform surgical pathology. General Electric Healthcare has extensive experience at supporting physicians’ work flow with digitized imaging systems, plus ample experience with molecular bio-markers. The University of Pittsb…
New Senate Bills Include Repeal of Competitive Bid
CEO SUMMARY: One proposed Senate bill would repeal the laboratory competitive bidding demonstration project, replace the 10.1% cut to physician fees with a 1.1% increase, and extend the so-called technical component (TC) grandfather clause. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana),…
ISO 15189 Work Advances at Meeting in Vancouver
CEO SUMMARY: Laboring quietly out of the public eye, an international work team of professionals, including representatives from the CDC, the FDA, and global in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers, has spent the past 14 years developing an important series of quality and safety standard…
CMS Expected to Revise Condo Lab & TC/PC Rules
CEO SUMMARY: Expectations are that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will take further action to rein in anatomic pathology arrangements used by physicians to capture revenue from their patient referrals. This may happen as soon as next month, when CMS publishes the 2…
June 16, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
GE Healthcare’s digital pathology joint venture with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), announced on June 5, is not the only in vitro diagnostics (IVD) investment by GE during 2008. Just this May, GE paid $738 million to acquire …
Ruling Against UroPath Signals More Fed Action
CEO SUMMARY: It was a signal win for federal healthcare officials when a federal district court judge in Washington, DC, dismissed a case brought by UroPath, LLC. UroPath had sued HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt seeking to challenge the physician fee schedule final order and the anti-markup…
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.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
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