On May 5, 2016, the White House issued a report citing a variety of issues with the use of non-compete agreements advocating for non-compete reform at the state and federal level.¹ According to the White House report, with respect to healthcare services (i.e., physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers and other medical professionals), noncompetes have the potential to interfere with the quality of care by restricting consumer choice.

The report acknowledged, however, that for physicians, it is plausible that there may be “legitimate business interests” that hospitals and service providers seek to protect. At the same time, many states have recently proposed or implemented legislation limiting the enforceability of non-competes, including some limitations specific to physicians and other healthcare providers. In this article, we will discuss the enforcement of noncompetes generally, enforcement against physicians in the context of employment or in connection with the sale of a business and recent state legislation specific to the enforcement of non-competes against physicians.