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
Labs Can Be Misguided by Pull-Through Test Myth
CEO SUMMARY: For the first time in almost eight years, there are major disruptions to the status quo in managed care contracting for laboratory testing services. As was true in the 1990s, national lab companies are pursuing exclusive national contracts with the nation’s…
April 2, 2007 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
In the past four weeks, Genova Diagnostics, Inc. of Asheville, North Carolina, has acquired two laboratories. First was the purchase of Individual Well- being Diagnostic Laboratory, Ltd. (IWDL), located near London, England. The purchase was announced on February 28….
Aetna Says: LabCorp Is Out & Quest Diagnostics Is In
CEO SUMMARY: January 1, 2007 can be considered the start of a new epoch in managed care contracting for lab test services. News of Aetna’s decision to favor Quest Diagnostics Incorporated with a five-year contract as its only national laboratory provider shows the direction this new epo…
Mobile Pathology Service Fuels Increased Revenue
CEO SUMMARY: When pathologist Raman Sukumar, M.D. founded a generalist pathology practice in 2003, he was convinced that local doctors would support his vision of pathology at the point of care. That vision was validated by rapid acceptance of his mobile pathology laboratory and a steady …
Pumping Up Performance of Lab Billing & Collections
CEO SUMMARY: Coding, billing, collections, and compliance continue to grow in complexity, making management of the lab’s revenue cycle ever more difficult. One by one, a number of the nation’s largest laboratories are taking steps to automate management of their revenue cycle by utili…
Siemens Executive Speaks on Integration Strategies
CEO SUMMARY: Siemens has a vision of tight integration of in vitro and in vivo diagnostics with informatics to support a single goal with two themes: enhancing work flow in healthcare. Theme one is that …
March 12, 2007 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
It’s the first opportunity to see how a New York-area laboratory is doing at grabbing UnitedHealth business. Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (BRLI) of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, announced earnings for its first quarter (ending on January 31) in its 2007 fiscal year…
Quest Acknowledges Loss of United Business
CEO SUMMARY: In the boxing world, prize fights between heavyweight contenders always grab the world’s attention. The same is true in the lab industry, where the current fight between the industry’s two heavyweights has the potential to reshape several important aspects of the national…
New Competitive Forces Alter Market Status Quo
CEO SUMMARY: January was not kind to Quest Diagnostics, as the company disclosed that it was likely to lose all its UnitedHealth business by year end. It also found itself excluded from the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey program. By February 1, however, Quest Diagnostics had…
LabCorp Uses United as a “Growth Driver”
CEO SUMMARY: In the first six weeks since its exclusive national contract with UnitedHealth became effective, Laboratory Corporation of America has made major gains in several key markets. It has also begun to share the details of its three-phase strategic plan to maximize the leverage it…
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.
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