Physician non-compete agreements are ubiquitous among physicians in Texas and the United States, with as many as 45% of American physicians bound by the agreements (Robeznieks, 2023). Noncompetes are agreements that are ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement between two parties. In healthcare, non-compete agreements impose temporal and geographic restrictions upon physicians, defining when and where they can work after departure from their employer. Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 15.50(b) identifies necessary features of enforceable physician noncompete agreements, requiring that the agreements: 1) do not prevent physicians access to a patient list, 2) allow physicians to have continued access to patient records, 3) provide for a “reasonable” buyout, and 4) do not prohibit a physician from continuing to provide care to a patient with an acute condition. Despite these statutory requirements for physician non-compete agreements, temporal and geographic restrictions may be burdensome and buyout fees may be so egregiously high that, alongside moving costs, physicians may be dissuaded from making career transitions that would allow them to establish new practices to foster innovation and competition or to independently practice in one of 129 counties containing medically underserved areas.
Better Healthcare Options Are Here
The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) has opened up opportunities for better medical care at a fraction of the cost. But now, opponents of healthcare reforms—people who want everyone to be on a singular government system—are using the government shutdown and false cries of “defunded Medicaid” to destroy the new options that the OBBB for...