The Minnesota Department of Health has rejected a proposal from a Texas-based, for-profit chain of rehabilitation hospitals interested in opening a 60-bed facility in Roseville.

Backed by private equity investors, Nobis Rehabilitation Partners has opened 20 facilities in 12 states since 2021 alone, an “aggressive growth” strategy that gave MDH pause, according to a written announcement from the department.

Rather than expand the marketplace, a freestanding, $43 million rehab center could “have a negative financial and workforce impact on existing facilities” while reducing services for those in need, according to MDH, which cited “a lack of explicit commitments in the project proposal for providing care to low-income and nonpaying patients.”

Restrictions on new hospitals

Unless a proposal meets defined statutory exceptions, state law prohibits the construction of new hospitals or the expansion of bed capacity at existing hospitals without specific authorization from the Legislature. Nobis submitted a letter of intent to MDH last year and its application was deemed ready for review in September.

“As Minnesota is facing high and rising health care costs, it is important we ensure that any proposal truly is in the best interest of all Minnesotans. By law, there is a high bar to clear,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham, in the department’s written announcement on Thursday. “Our analysis indicates that this project does not meet that burden and, therefore, MDH is unable to recommend that it is in the public interest.”

Officials with Allina Health, North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale, Hennepin Healthcare and the Minnesota Nurses Association wrote letters of concern to MDH, as did a series of physicians objecting to a for-profit hospital chain potentially poaching patients and workers and making it harder for existing rehab centers to offer care.

“By introducing an out-of-state, for-profit provider to the state’s market, the state could potentially see disruptions throughout the rehabilitative care continuum,” wrote Brian LeLoup, vice president of Allina Health’s Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute.

“The focus of our challenges is less about the number of inpatient rehabilitation beds and more about staff capacity to take care of the patients in those beds,” wrote Keith Wilton, executive director of Rehabilitation Services for Hennepin Healthcare.

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The Minnesota Supreme Court has disbarred a St. Paul attorney accused of mishandling client funds and pocketing at least $18,000 in settlement money won by three Hmong clients who spoke limited English.

Fong E. Lee had been disciplined three times since being admitted to practice law in Minnesota in 2007, each one related to his trust accounts and fee arrangements with clients.

In the latest instances, a legal referee found that Lee misappropriated more than $18,000 from three clients, failed to return unearned fees, failed to maintain the required trust account books, failed to communicate with clients and failed to cooperate with the investigation led by the director of the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility.

The office named five clients who had been harmed by his behavior, including a client who had a lien placed on her home, and another who struggled to pay for basic living expenses.

Lee filed an answer denying all misconduct, but did not show up for oral arguments to contest the accusations. The referee found no mitigating circumstances for his behavior and recommended disbarment, according to the court opinion.

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MOBILE, Ala. — Kerry Joseph doesn’t have any thoughts yet on the Chicago Bears’ biggest offseason decision, the one that holds the key to the NFL draft.

The team’s new quarterbacks coach, hired Friday, doesn’t even know where his office is at Halas Hall. He has been on a whirlwind tour since the season ended, free to seek a new job after the Seattle Seahawks forced out coach Pete Carroll.

Joseph, the assistant quarterbacks coach for the Seahawks the last two seasons, spent one day in Lake Forest interviewing for the Bears job. In between, he was scrambling to get to Mobile, where he’s serving as quarterbacks coach of the American team in the Senior Bowl.

Somehow along the way, Joseph got hooked up with Bears gear and was wearing a team-issued navy hat, navy shorts and gray sweatshirt at practice Tuesday at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the South Alabama campus.

He doesn’t have preliminary thoughts on Justin Fields. Joseph was the assistant wide receivers coach in Seattle in 2021, when the Bears drafted Fields. He has yet to dig in on this year’s draft, in which the Bears hold the first and ninth picks and are in position to select a new quarterback.

“I was getting transitioned to coming out here,” the 50-year-old Joseph said.

It’s the first time he has been an NFL position coach — above the assistant position coach level. The connection is easy to make. He worked with new Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who came from the Seahawks. The Bears also interviewed Seahawks quarterbacks coach Greg Olson for the offensive coordinator job.

The last first-time quarterbacks coach the Bears hired was Shane Day in 2010 based on his experience working with then-offensive coordinator Mike Martz in San Francisco. Since Day, the Bears have rolled through Jeremy Bates, Matt Cavanaugh, Dowell Loggains, Dave Ragone, John DeFilippo and most recently Andrew Janocko.

It would be overly dramatic to say this is the most important offseason for a Bears quarterbacks coach. There has been urgency to get the position right for the longest time. It just so happens they own the No. 1 draft pick as they prepare to thoroughly examine a talented group of passers, including USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye (who was a spectator at practice Tuesday), LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.

Joseph, who was responsible for red-zone preparation with the Seahawks, had a hand in helping revive Geno Smith’s career in Seattle as Smith threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2022. Joseph’s knowledge of Waldron’s system will be critical whether the Bears draft a quarterback or not.

“When you think about Shane and what we were able to do with the (Seahawks) offense, I think quarterback play is about having confidence,” Joseph said. “Quarterback play is just about being competitive. It’s about being smart, being dependable, having a good IQ of the game, being passionate.

“When you think about traits, when you talk about quarterback play and when you talk about Shane’s mentality, it’s just about being connected to the play caller, being connected to the offense. There are some things you’ve got to have and you’ve got to bring to it.”

Joseph was a quarterback at McNeese State and had a 42-11 record as a four-year starter, helping the Cowboys to two Southland Conference titles. He spent time with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 as an undrafted free agent before playing in NFL Europe. He tried to make the Washington Redskins as a slot back and then played safety for the Seahawks from 1998 to 2001, appearing in 56 games with 14 starts.

He returned to quarterback in the Canadian Football League in 2003, winning a Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2007, when he was named the league’s most outstanding player. After retiring following the 2014 season, he got into coaching at the college level with stops at his alma mater and Southeastern Louisiana before joining the Seahawks as an offensive assistant in 2020.

The diverse background — having played defense in the NFL — gives him a different perspective to teach offensive football.

“It helps me tremendously,” Joseph said, “because playing the safety position, playing that dime (position), playing down in the box helped me understand how defenses attack the offense, how guys fit. So now that I’ve gone back to quarterback, I see it from a defensive mentality.

“Being able to help guys to understand the game, not just from the offensive side but from the defensive side, kind of helped (with) where to put their eyes. That’s what it did for me as a player, and I try to teach it that way with a defensive mentality.”

Joseph will learn where his office is soon, and then he can hit the ground running as the Bears prepare for the draft and install a new offense — quite possibly with a new quarterback. As far as his philosophy on developing a young quarterback, he leaned into some basic tenets.

“I use three things: accountability, responsibility, communication,” Joseph said. “It’s about trust, believing and having confidence in each other. A quarterbacks coach and a quarterback, you’ve got to have those three things.

“Then, hey, it’s about the fundamentals. It’s about developing the fundamentals, developing the mentality to be a good leader. To be a winner. Just willing to compete. There are so many things that I have in my philosophy as a person that I take into the coaching world and into the quarterback room to help develop a group of guys.”

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Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore could reunite with his former college coach.

The Bears are working to hire Chris Beatty to be their wide receivers coach, though it was not yet official Tuesday morning, a source confirmed. Beatty was Moore’s position coach for two of his three seasons at Maryland, including 2017, when Moore was the Big Ten wide receiver of the year.

Beatty would join the Bears after three seasons as the Los Angeles Chargers wide receivers coach, his first NFL stint after 15 years coaching in college.

He would replace Tyke Tolbert, whom the Bears fired along with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and three other offensive staffers earlier this month. ESPN first reported the news of the expected hire.

Along with his time at Maryland, where he was promoted to associate head coach and co-offensive coordinator, Beatty was a position coach at Pittsburgh, Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Northern Illinois and Hampton. He was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Tim Beckman during his lone season with the Illini in 2012.

A former wide receiver at East Tennessee State and in the Canadian Football League, Beatty started his coaching career at the high school level.

He would be tasked with coaching a wide receivers group that Bears general manager Ryan Poles might look to bolster after it lacked production beyond Moore in 2023.

In his first season with the Bears and quarterback Justin Fields, Moore had a career-high 96 catches for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns.

But Darnell Mooney had his worst season with 31 catches on 61 targets for 414 yards and a touchdown. And rookie Tyler Scott had a bumpy first season, finishing with 17 catches on 32 targets for 168 yards.

Beatty would be the fifth Bears coaching hire this offseason. They previously hired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph and defensive coordinator Eric Washington and are hiring Thomas Brown as passing game coordinator. They also need to hire a running backs coach.

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