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
Market Demand for Pathologists Shifts Toward Specialization
CEO SUMMARY: Unlike the slack employment market for pathologists seen during the 1990s, there is strong demand for pathologists in this decade. Private pathology group practices now face competition for the best pathology talent. That’s because public lab companies are regularly in the …
Bio-Reference Labs An Example Of How Regional Labs Can Grow
IT’ S QUARTERLY EARNINGS TIME, which makes it possible to evaluate trends in the laboratory services marketplace by looking at the performance of public laboratory companies. Because of their large size and market dominance, the two national laboratory companies are closely watched to see how they…
Mergers Create Two Huge National Health Insurers
ANOTHER ROUND OF CONSOLIDATION among health insurers has created a new “biggest in the nation” company and boosted the size of the second largest health insurance company. On October 28, in separate announcements that were just 30 minutes apart, Anthem Inc. disclosed it would pa…
“November 10, 2003 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Has the disappearance of much despised closed panel HMOs eased the financial woes of physicians? Apparently not, according to a recent study. Medical groups are losing money. Nationwide, the average loss-per-physician by medical groups was $3,977. In the 2003 survey, 25,784 physicians responded, a 26…
Chipping Away at Laboratory Reimbursement
PROPOSED NEW MEDICARE RULES by the Office of the Investigator General (OIG) dealing with “discriminatory billing practices” and “usual charges” should be seen as part of a larger trend. The government doesn’t have the money to pay for Medicare and Medicaid. Thus, it is expl…
OIG Moves to Address “Usual Charge” Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Federal regulators are taking another crack at defining “usual charges.” Language in the proposed rules published last month precisely defines which payers should be included in determining “usual charges” and what charge basis to use for specific payers. Once effecti…
No Disruptive Technology In Lab Industry’s Future
CEO SUMMARY: As new diagnostic technologies move through the development pipeline and into widespread clinical use, the scientific knowledge and skill sets needed by laboratory staff and management will change. The emphasis in laboratory medicine will evolve to include more molecular tech…
Looking at Fast-Growth And Slow-Growth Areas In Diagnostic Testing
CEO SUMMARY: This exclusive intelligence briefing predicts how specific new technologies may drive changes in the laboratory-testing marketplace during the next five years. The key message is that change is expected to be incremental, not disruptive—given the technology known to be in d…
Two Blood Brothers Ramp Up Marketing of New Lab Assays
GROWTH IN SPECIMEN VOLUME and revenues is the major challenge at the nation’s two largest laboratory corporations. How Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated solve this problem will affect and influence every remaining clinical labora…
“October 20, 2003 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Here’s a reminder that corporate fraud didn’t bypass healthcare. Last week Albert Bergonzi, former Executive Vice President of McKesson/HBOC, pled guilty to violations of securities laws. He admitted that he had “cooked the books” around the time of HBOC’s acquisition by Mc…
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?
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