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Paul Cirel

Overview

Paul Cirel has represented individual and institutional healthcare clients for more than 30 years in federal and state courts, as well as before administrative agencies and other governmental authorities.  Mr. Cirel also provides ongoing guidance regarding developments in health law and regulatory compliance to individual providers, practice groups, clinics, and hospitals.

A partner at the firm, Mr. Cirel represents healthcare clients facing fraud and abuse investigations; civil and criminal false claims and anti-kickback prosecutions in state and federal courts; governmental and other third-party payor audits; and disciplinary and other administrative agency proceedings.  His individual clients include physicians, dentists, nurses, physical therapists, practice managers, and other medical professionals.  Mr. Cirel’s institutional clients include healthcare corporations, hospitals, medical device companies, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical clinics, drug testing laboratories, and adult day health providers. 

Healthcare professionals frequently seek Mr. Cirel’s counsel when they are involved in proceedings before the Board of Registration in Medicine and other professional licensing authorities.  He also advises both physicians and medical staffs in hospital-based peer-review proceedings.  Healthcare institutions and providers seek his guidance for a variety of commercial and regulatory matters, including Medicare, Medicaid, and other third-party administrator audits.

Prior to private practice, Mr. Cirel served as Senior Trial Counsel and Deputy Chief of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General.

Representative Results

Representative Results

Paul Cirel's notable accomplishments include:

  • Represented psychiatrist before the Supreme Judicial Court in a case of first impression establishing that the psychotherapist-patient privilege cannot be pierced even by investigative subpoena
  • Successfully represented orthopedic shoe manufacturers/distributors in Attorney General's industry-wide investigation of Medicaid fraud and regulatory compliance
  • Secured dismissal of all criminal charges brought against a chiropractic clinic related to a government crackdown on automobile accident insurance fraud
  • Successfully resolved four separate Medicaid Fraud investigations of Adult Day Health programs
  • Successfully resolved two-year grand jury Medicaid fraud investigation of dental clinic, resulting in no criminal charges and restitution settlement with no fines, penalties, or sanctions
  • Obtained favorable civil resolutions of grand jury anti-kickback and false claims investigations of drug testing labs   
  • Obtained separate not guilty jury verdicts on behalf of two psychiatrists, a dentist, and a gynecologist each of whom had been charged with sexually assaulting a patient
  • Won dismissal of all charges against a psychiatrist who had prescribed controlled substances to two undercover state police troopers posing as patients
  • Successfully defended neurosurgeon accused by Board of Registration in Medicine of performing over 20 unnecessary surgeries
  • Secured restoration of clinical privileges for a radiation oncologist following a peer review proceeding at a major Boston teaching hospital
  • Obtained retroactive rate increases for Massachusetts Ambulance Association because of a lawsuit seeking higher reimbursement rates

Experience

  • Todd & Weld LLP
  • Hogan Lovells
  • Collora LLP
  • Office of Massachusetts Attorney General, Deputy Chief of Medicaid Fraud Control Unit

Credentials

Education

  • Boston University School of Law (1973)
  • California State University Long Beach (B.A., magna cum laude, 1970)

Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • U.S. District Court, Massachusetts

Professional Activities

  • American Health Lawyers Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Massachusetts Bar Association
  • Boston Bar Association

Publications/Presentations

  • Panelist, "Opioid Diversion: Managing Risks and Implementing Controls," Boston Bar Association CLE, December 2018
  • "Nontraditional Health Care Programs Under the Microscope," Law360, Feb. 23, 2018

Honors and Awards

  • Named by Best Lawyers in America as 2024 Health Care Litigation "Lawyer of the Year" in Boston
  • Regularly named to Best Lawyers in America for Health Care Law since 2016
  • Regularly named to Massachusetts Super Lawyers, Health Care and Criminal Defense: White Collar since 2005
  • Named to Boston magazine's Top Lawyers 2023
  • Rx for Excellence, Heroes From the Field, Massachusetts Medical Law Report

In the Community

  • President, Newton Athletic Association