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
“April 18, 2005 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
This may be one of the laboratory industry’s biggest “oops” ever! As part of a laboratory proficiency testing pro- gram, 4,000 laboratories in 18 countries were sent live samples of the H2N2 flu virus. In 1957, H2N2 is believed to have caused between one and four million deaths. Last week, the …
Phlebotomist Convicted For Theft of Patient ID
CEO SUMMARY: Patient identity theft by a phlebotomist, prosecuted and convicted under HIPAA. This is a story whose true dimensions went unreported within the laboratory industry—until now! THE DARK REPORT is first to alert its clients to the possibility that every laboratory and patholo…
Privacy Officer Shares Lessons on ID Theft
CEO SUMMARY: “Nothing teaches like experience.” That adage aptly describes the lessons learned at a Seattle hospital after a case of patient identity theft surfaced. Laboratories and pathology groups must be just as alert to the potential for patient identity theft as they are to inap…
Phlebotomist Gibson Steals Patient’s Identity
CEO SUMMARY: It was a case of a well-liked lab worker acting in rogue fashion to steal and use the identity of a patient to commit financial fraud. Within laboratories, employees in phlebotomy, accessioning, data entry, coding, billing, and collections often have access to sensitive patie…
Medicare Managed Care Is Poised to Double in Size
MEDICARE MANAGED CARE PLANS are poised to double in size. This can be both a threat and an opportunity for regional laboratories. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently reported that it had received 141 applications for new local Medicare Advantage plans for 20…
OIG May Be Investigating AP Laboratory Condos
CEO SUMMARY: Attorneys for one of the companies which sells and manages anatomic pathology condominium laboratories have recently sent correspondence to owners of these lab condos. This correspondence discloses that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is examining the company. Knowl…
Labs in United Kingdom Pressured to Change
CEO SUMMARY: Across the United Kingdom, the physical lay-out, instrumentation, and operation of laboratories is very close to that of laboratories in the United States and Canada. The source of most differences is how the healthcare system in the United Kingdom funds clinical services and…
Year-end Financials Released For Quest, LabCorp & LabOne
In RECENT WEEKS, public laboratory companies have released earnings reports for the year-ending December 31, 2004. It was generally a good year for the three largest lab companies that have a major emphasis on providing lab testing services to office-based physicians. In this year’s review, THE DA…
“March 28, 2005 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
For lab managers and pathologists tracking the growth of e-commerce, here’s a revealing statistic. The Federal Reserve Bank released numbers showing that 2003 was the first year where the number of electronic payment transactions exceeded the number of trans- actions paid by check….
FL Medicaid Gives Up On Statewide Lab Contract
CEO SUMMARY: With the withdrawal of the December 13, 2004 “Invitation to Negotiate” (ITN), Florida’s Medicaid bureaucrats seem to have thrown in the towel—at least for the moment—on the effort to give a single laboratory company an exclusive three-year contract to provide labora…
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?
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