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
Continuing Uncertainty For California Lab Firms
CEO SUMMARY: In its ongoing initiative to determine if clinical labs in California have violated the lowest-price regulation, the California Department of Health Care Services is preparing to send out revised letters to as many as 300 laboratory companies in the state. The letters will as…
Seeking Market Clout, Labs Form Networks
CEO SUMMARY: Meet “Test Exchange Networks!” These are shared laboratory testing networks that have spontaneously appeared in different communities across the nation. Typically two or more local laboratories come together and begin to collaborate by sharing any number of resources. The…
February 28, 2011 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
In recent months, deficiencies in forensic pathology have made news in both the United States and Canada. In a story released February 5, 2011, on CaliforniaWatch.com, reporter Ryan Gabrielson wrote that “Coroners in Northern California are farming out thousands of cases each year to a pri…
$241 Million May Settle Quest Medi-Cal Claims
CEO SUMMARY: There’s movement in the negotiations between California state officials and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated over allegations that discounted lab test prices violated state law. In January, Quest disclosed that it had an “understanding” with California regulators…
Expect Changes in How Calif. Labs Set Test Prices
CEO SUMMARY: What a difference two years makes. Back in April 2009, when then-Attorney General Jerry Brown joined the whistleblower lawsuit alleging that seven or more California lab companies had violated state law on pricing provider services, the popular wisdom among lab execu…
Solstas Lab Partners, DNA Direct, Pathology, Inc., Slone Partners, PAML
SPECTRUM-CARILION NOW WILL BE CALLED SOLSTAS LAB PARTNERS IT IS THE NEXT STEP IN THE INTEGRATION of Spectrum Laboratory Network and Carilion Laboratories. Effective February 1, 2011, their combined businesses will use the name Solsta…
Sunquest’s LIS Product First To Earn Certification from CCHIT
IF THERE WAS A RACE TO BE FIRST TO OFFER a laboratory information system (LIS) product that is certified to be compliant as an (EHR) electronic health record module by CCHIT, then Sunquest Information Systems, Inc., has attained that achievement. On January 21, 2011, the Cer…
Putting Centrifuges Into Courier Cars For Mobile Processing
CEO SUMMARY: To improve the quality of lab services it provides to more than 300 skilled nursing facilities (SNF) while reducing costs, MuirLab of Concord, California, has created a “mobile specimen processing” solution. It operates a fleet of courier cars with centr…
Using Audits to Uncover Bad Data in the Lab
CEO SUMMARY: Labs using Lean, Six Sigma, and similar quality management methods are now putting these tools to a new purpose. They are being employed to validate the accuracy of metrics designed to monitor and manage work processes directly related to turnaround times and custome…
February 7, 2011 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
In Nigeria, the kidnap of a professor of pathology at the University of Uyno last month caused work stoppages by academic union members in protest of the government’s failure to protect medical faculty from the recent rash of kidnappings. Pathologist Dr. Memfin Ekp…
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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