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
Paper Requisition Signature Rule Contradicts 2001 Actions
CEO SUMMARY: Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) used publication of the proposed 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to introduce new language that would require, as of January 1, 2011, that all paper requisitions for clinical laboratory tests for Me…
How Labs Should Comply With New Signature Rule
CEO SUMMARY: Across the nation, clinical laboratories and pathology groups are reacting to the new Medicare rule that requires a physician signature on a paper requisition for clinical laboratory tests. Laboratories using paper requisitions will need to add a signature line, then…
Beckman Coulter and Genoptix Offer Themselves Up for Sale
FOR DIFFERENT REASONS, last month two large companies in the lab industry put themselves up for sale. Assuming that both companies are sold, one consequence may be further consolidation in both the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturing sector and the lab testing sector. It was on Decembe…
Pursuing More Benefits From Next Generation Lab Automation
CEO Summary: Once it was decided to replace an aging, five-year-old laboratory automation system at the laboratory of Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, the administration at the hospital issued a challenge. It asked the laboratory team to deliver an immediate 10% cos…
Surprises in KLAS Rating of Anatomic Path Systems
CEO SUMMARY: KLAS Research published its Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards in December and ranked Psyche WindoPath the top system in two categories. KLAS, which rates as many as 56 categories of healthcare software and professional services products in its annual report, does not provid…
January 18, 2011 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Do you know about GRIPE? It’s the Group for Research in Pathology Education and it just concluded its winter meeting last week at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. The organization has approximately 120 subscribers and, although mos…
Discounted Lab Prices Become Issue in California
CEO SUMMARY: For decades, California’s lab testing market has been considered the Wild West because clinical lab companies have felt relatively free to offer deeply-discounted prices to expand market share and take business away from competitors. Now these discounted pricing pr…
Medi-Cal Gets Tough on Low Lab Test Prices
CEO SUMMARY: This may be the most significant lab industry story of 2010, which has gone unreported until now. Starting in June and July, California’s Department of Health Care Services determined that between 10 and 30 labs had submitted what the agency considers to be false c…
How Could So Many Labs Violate California Law?
CEO SUMMARY: If a 40-year-old state law on Medi-Cal pricing was known to regulators and clinical laboratories alike, how did the legal and compliance departments of so many laboratories—staffed by some of the smartest legal minds in California and nationally—interpret the law…
Did Qui Tam Suit Trigger Medi-Cal Price Concerns?
CEO SUMMARY: It is easy to track backwards to understand why the California Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS) began aggressive enforcement of its interpretation of statute 51501(a) against a number of labs this summer. DHCS officials were given a full education and a roadm…
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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