Biography
Paul Cirel has been litigating in courts and administrative agencies on behalf of healthcare clients for more than 30 years. He provides ongoing guidance and counsel to individuals, institutional providers, and trade associations regarding developments in health law and regulatory compliance.
Mr. Cirel represents a wide range of individuals and institutional clients in fraud and abuse investigations, false claims actions in state and federal courts, audits, and disciplinary and other administrative agency proceedings. His clients include physicians, dentists, nurses, physical therapists, practice managers, and other medical professionals. Institutional clients also seek his advice and counsel, including healthcare corporations, hospitals, medical device companies, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, medical clinics, and drug testing laboratories. Mr. Cirel represents the Massachusetts Ambulance Association, including many of its constituent members.
His practice includes representing healthcare professionals before the Board of Registration in Medicine and other licensing authorities, and often counsels physicians in hospital-based peer-review proceedings. Healthcare institutions and providers seek Mr. Cirel's 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 Office of the Attorney General for Massachusetts.
Some of Mr. 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 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 separate not guilty jury verdicts on behalf of two psychiatrists, 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 as a result of a lawsuit seeking higher reimbursement rates
