The FTC Prohibition on Employee Noncompetes Is Good for Health Care

My new essay for The Hill explains why the FTC’s new rule prohibiting employee “noncompete” provisions – including for physicians – will benefit both doctors and patients. It is a regulation even Republicans should love.

Here is the gist

FTC’s crackdown on noncompete clauses will help your doctor and your health

Now let’s say that your beloved doctor has a falling out with the private equity firm that recently acquired her group practice. So she decides to strike out on her own.

Your doctor likely signed a noncompete provision, prohibiting her from joining or opening a competing practice in the same geographic area for up to five years. 

In other words, leaving her employer would also mean leaving her town and patients behind.

The new FTC rule addresses that problem by banning new noncompetes for employees nationwide, including doctors.

The American Academy of Family Physicians applauded the formal adoption of the rule. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have already filed a lawsuit challenging the rule in a federal court in Texas. The plaintiffs no doubt hope to prevail in the conservative Fifth Circuit, but they may be in for a surprise. Physician noncompetes are unpopular, even on the right. Indiana’s legislature, for example, with a Republican supermajority, has already passed a law prohibiting noncompetes for primary care physicians, with no exception for nonprofits, which may be the beginning of a trend.

You can read the full essay at The Hill.