Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Emergency Physician Restrictive Covenants Explained

By Lisa Maurer, MD, FACEP | on January 6, 2023 | 0 Comment
Features
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

Forty years after its founding as a single-site democratic group, the physician-owned practice group of which I am a part added additional contracts in 2022. The sites where our group gained contracts already had fantastic physicians working there, alongside whom our partners would be proud to work. During the process of our group’s transition into these new sites, we unfortunately found that many physicians in our area were limited in their right to work in their home community after employment when the previous contract ended. As we progressed in our transition into these sites, a couple of questions arose:

You Might Also Like
  • Restrictive Covenants in Emergency Medicine Employment Contracts
  • Tips for Negotiating Emergency Physician Employment Contracts
  • 5 Questions on Employment Contracts
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 42 – No 01 – January 2023
  • Were these “non-compete” clauses enforceable for emergency physicians?
  • Even if they were enforceable, do former employers historically pursue enforcement? What could our group do to help support these fellow emergency physicians?

To help our group answer these questions, we reviewed the typical structure and use of these contractual clauses within our specialty.

Contracts Between Employers and Emergency Physicians

Contracts between employers and emergency physicians that limit the right to compete after employment ends are common and subject to close scrutiny when challenged. Post-employment non-compete clauses limiting physician practice in a geographic area, non-solicitation provisions restricting treatment of former patients and solicitation of colleagues, and confidentiality provisions are all types of restrictive covenant agreements. Such provisions can be found in a wide range of contracts, including employment and independent contractor agreements as well as partnership agreements. These provisions contrast from “non-interference with contract” clauses that generally prohibit contracted emergency physicians from conspiring to control the emergency department management contract themselves or conspiring with others to do so.

Legislative approaches and the courts’ willingness to enforce non-competes vary widely between states. California, for example, has declared most post-employment competition restrictions to be unenforceable and void. Other states, like Florida and Texas, are more sympathetic to enforcing these contracts by granting the courts power to revise or “blue-pencil” provisions deemed unreasonable. An excellent survey of the national landscape by William Millard, MD, can be found as previously published in ACEP Now based on his peer-reviewed report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Our group found it helpful to gather local legal opinions. The attorneys at Kravitt, Hovel, and Krawczyk suggested, “In every jurisdiction which entertains the possibility of enforcing such anti-competitive provisions, the employer must at least articulate a protectable interest justifying that restriction.” They went on to describe that the party attempting to enforce the provision needs to show it is necessary either to:

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Topics: careerEmployment ContractLegalrestrictive covenantsright to work

Related

  • ACEP4U: Ramping Up Residency Outreach

    May 8, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • UCSF Resident Lives the Dream On “Survivor” Season 47

    May 8, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • May 2025 News from the College

    May 6, 2025 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

No Responses to “Emergency Physician Restrictive Covenants Explained”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Careers Center
  • Urgent and Virtual Care - Physician - Southeast, MI

    About Us As a physician-led organization, IHA combines the autonomy and close-knit culture of a private practice with the stability and resources o...

    Ann Arbor, Michigan

    Competitive

    Trinity Health

    Read More
  • Emergency Medicine Physicians

    Saskatchewan Health Authority is hiring Emergency Medicine Physicians to provide services in Rural & Urban Emergency Departments & Urgent Care Centre

    Regina (Region), Saskatchewan (CA)

    Highly Competitive Compensation – Full time: Earn up to $475,000 CAD annually for 1,440 hours

    Saskatchewan Health Authority

    Read More
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine

    St. Luke’s University Health Network, the region’s largest, most established health system, a major teaching hospital, and one of the nation’s 100 ...

    Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

    Competitive

    St. Luke's University Health Network

    Read More
More Jobs
Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603