Charles F. Dingman’s practice focuses on addressing reimbursement, regulatory and a wide range of other legal issues for clients who provide health care and related services.  He has advised and advocated on behalf of hospitals, rehabilitation, mental health, and social service providers, nursing facilities, and other health care providers on a wide range of economic, policy, and corporate issues.  The focal points of his practice include Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, licensing and certificate of need issues, compliance issues, responses to civil and criminal fraud and abuse investigations, transactional issues, and corporate restructuring.

He has prosecuted appeals to the federal Provider Reimbursement Review Board (PRRB) and worked with hospitals on Medicare issues such as provider-based status, and critical access hospital designations and reimbursement, and numerous compliance issues.  Charlie frequently participates in hearings and informal negotiations before the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and participates in the development of health care policy before the Maine Legislature and the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance.  Drawing upon his extensive experience in public service, he also regularly handles issues before a variety of other administrative bodies, including Maine licensing boards, the Bureau of Insurance, and the Division of Purchases.  He has argued health care appeals before Maine’s Superior and Supreme Judicial courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 

Charlie joined the Health Care Practice Group at Preti Flaherty in 1992, immediately following his service as the first General Counsel for the Maine Health Care Finance Commission.  There, he was responsible for the Commission’s rulemaking and adjudicatory hearing process, and represented the agency in State and Federal courts and before the Legislature, from 1984 through 1992.

Prior to the creation of the Health Care Finance Commission, he served as Senior Counsel and Hearing Examiner at the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC), where he handled utility rate and service cases, and participated in judicial and administrative proceedings arising from the AT&T antitrust settlement.  He has combined his health care and telecommunications experience to counsel clients regarding the application of telecommunications technology to health care.

Charlie speaks regularly to provider audiences on health care law topics.  He belongs to the American Health Lawyers Association and to its Reimbursement, Accreditation and Payment, Fraud and Abuse, and Health Information Technology groups.  He is a member of the Maine State Bar Association and its Health and Administrative Law sections, having served on the Executive Committee of the Health Law Section from 1985 until 1992. He is listed in Woodward/White's The Best Lawyers in America.

Charlie currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Maine Equal Justice Project.  From 1983-2003, he served on the Board of Directors of Maine School Administrative District 52, which includes the towns of Greene, Leeds and Turner, serving as chairperson of the Board for 17 of those years.  He has served as moderator of the annual town meeting in Leeds, Maine each year since 1985.

Admissions
Maine; U.S. District Court, District of Maine; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit

Education
J.D., Columbia University Law School, 1978
A.B., Bowdoin College, 1975 (Magna Cum Laude)