Physician Noncompete Clauses: Statistics and Insights from Our Data
- Nisha Mehta, MD
- Jun 13
- 7 min read
Noncompete clauses are one of the most commonly negotiated parts of a physician employment agreement. While we’ve covered negotiating your noncompete clause, we also wanted to provide physicians with an idea of common structures, including lengths and distances for noncompetes, as well as trends in how physician non compete clauses are structured. As part of our physician salary and compensation negotiation database that we offer as a free resource for members of our physician communities, our physician members anonymously contribute information about their current noncompetes. Below, we provide aggregate data from our database to help physicians in their negotiations.
Disclaimers/Disclosures: This information is derived from our physician salary and compensation databases, but is subject to self-reporting errors and availability of relevant data points from our online communities. This information is provided for educational purposes only, and is aimed at advocating for individual physicians. It is not intended to be used for collective bargaining; please see additional disclosures and disclaimers on the physician salary data pages. Please also do your own research before making any decisions based on the information provided. We are not formal financial, legal, or tax professionals and do not provide individualized advice. You should consult these as appropriate. We highly recommend having your physician employment agreement reviewed by a physician contract review attorney to ensure you have the most up to date and relevant information for your specific situation.
Typical structures of physician noncompete clauses
When we colloquially discuss noncompete clauses on the physician communities, we typically refer to what happens after you leave a job.
Most physicians answering our question also referred to it in this way, referring to how long after they left their position that the noncompete applied. This is the data that we’ll explore below.
However, some mentioned their noncompetes that were in effect while at their current job. In these situations, they typically reported that they couldn’t:
Moonlight or do any kind of work anywhere else
Pick up shifts as a competing urgent care for additional income
Practice anywhere else in the same county (or counties) as their current institution’s location(s)
Non-compete clauses versus non-solicitation clauses
We noted when scrubbing our physician salary and negotiation database that some physicians also noted they had non solicitation clauses instead of non compete clauses.
Common stipulations in non-solicitation clauses we saw were:
They weren’t allowed to solicit other physicians or employees from the same institution for a new venture
They weren’t allowed to solicit current patients from the practice or institution they were leaving
Legal restrictions on doctor noncompetes
It’s important to note that the legality, enforceability, and extent of noncompete clauses can vary significantly based on the state.
Several physicians mentioned they weren’t sure if their noncompete was still valid. While the FTC tried to ban noncompetes nationally in 2024, this attempt was struck down in the courts. That said, many states have restricted or banned noncompete agreements. We cover this in more depth below, but several respondents mentioned that their state restricted the maximum distance allowed under a noncompete, or that they were in the process of getting their noncompete removed from their contract due to recent legislation changes with their state banning noncompete clauses.
As we’ve seen in recent years, the legality of noncompetes is continually changing. We highly recommend getting in touch with a local contract attorney for guidance on the latest regulations applicable to your specific situation when negotiating a new physician employment agreement, renegotiating a contract for your current position, or looking at the implications of an existing noncompete in a contract for a position you’re considering leaving.
How long do physician noncompetes typically last for?
For noncompetes in effect after leaving employment, lengths varied anywhere from 1 month to 5 years. The vast majority of noncompetes, however, were for 1 to 2 years. 2 years was most commonly reported, with an average noncompete length of 18 months (1.5 years).
What distance do physician noncompete clauses typically cover?
Common noncompete structures for distances included:
A set radius in miles (most common)
Cannot practice in the same county, or in contiguous counties (also commonly reported)
Within the same zip code or specific zip codes
Within certain blocks (more typical for densely populated cities, such as NYC)
Limited to specific competing institutions
Distance from primary office/location
Distance from any office/location
For physicians who stated a specific mile radius from their location, the distance covered ranged from 1 to 120 miles. The average distance for noncompetes was a 20 mile radius, with 15 miles being the median distance. A 10 mile radius was most commonly reported.
Below, we looked at how the distance of noncompetes varied depending on the practice environment.
Some physicians specifically mentioned in our database that they were able to successfully negotiate their noncompete radius down from a much higher standard.
Explore:
Can you get out of an existing physician noncompete agreement?
If you are considering leaving a current position with an existing noncompete, there are often penalties for breaking the terms of your original agreement. Common penalties for breaking noncompetes included:
A sum equal to one year’s salary
The entirety of the physician’s bonus amount and/or accounts receivable
A set dollar amount, typically around $100,000-$200,000, though we saw as high as $500,000 for highly specialized physicians
Requirement to pay for their own tail insurance coverage
Forfeiting their employer’s unvested contributions to their retirement
With the legal changes in noncompetes highlighted above, several physicians mentioned that they may have a noncompete and related penalty outlined in their contract, but that it was generally considered unenforceable. If you’re considering a situation where you might be in conflict with your noncompete, we again highly recommend reaching out to a physician contract attorney to help assess the situation and potential implications/options, as the financial implications can be significant as outlined above.
Trends in physician noncompete clauses by practice environment
While pulling together the aggregate data, we looked to see if we noted any differences based on the practice environment.
Certain practice environments were more likely overall to include a noncompete clause in an employment agreement:
Active duty military: 0%
Corporate groups, non-private equity backed: 44%
Corporate groups, private equity backed: 53%
FQHCs and other nonprofits: 32%
Government facilities: 6%
Group private practices, non-private equity backed: 57%
Group private practices, private equity backed: 79%
Academic hospitals: 59%
Nonacademic hospitals: 64%
None of our active duty military members reported noncompetes, though military members typically have to sign on for specific service contract lengths. Few of our physicians working for government run facilities reported having noncompetes. Physicians working for PE backed group private practices, however, reported the highest percentage of noncompetes across all practice environments. Physicians working at nonacademic hospitals were slightly more likely to have a noncompete than those working for academic hospitals.
Along with the prevalence of noncompetes, we dug into the structures of the agreements as well. We saw that in general, hospital systems tended to have larger distances covered under a noncompete clause, while non-profits generally had smaller radiuses. Average noncompete distances by practice environment were:
Corporate groups: 16 mile radius
FQHCs and other nonprofits: 15 mile radius
Group private practices: 18 mile radius
Academic hospitals: 21 mile radius
Nonacademic hospital: 22 mile radius
The average length of a noncompete did not vary greatly between practice environments.
Trends in physician noncompetes by state
States where many physicians in our database reported not having noncompetes (not necessarily where they were illegal, but where we just saw a smaller percentage of physicians reporting them) were:
Massachusetts
Nebraska
New Mexico
Oklahoma
Oregon
Additionally, a few states have implemented legislation that bans employers from adding noncompete clauses to new employment agreements, and several states have legislation in place that limit the scope of noncompetes, such as the maximum time period allowed.
California is one state where noncompetes have generally been banned, although a full ban wasn’t enacted until 2023. Before then, employers could still include a noncompete in a physician employment contract, but they were generally unenforceable. This brings up an interesting point we wanted to touch on, as 12% of our physicians in our 2023-2025 database in California indicated they had a noncompete. As noncompete legislation changes locally, implications of existing contracts from positions held for several years may become unenforceable. Once again, this is why we recommend consulting with a physician contract review attorney if you are looking at changing jobs and aren’t sure what exposure, if any, you might have.
Conclusion
The terms of a noncompete clause can vary significantly by the practice environment, location, and even by your specific institution. If a potential employer includes a noncompete in your contract, it is something that you can negotiate before you accept a position, and many physicians do. Depending on where you live, a noncompete may even be limited or banned based on local legislation. If you want to see trends specific to your situation, you can explore our entire free physician salary and negotiation database to compare apples to apples.
Additional salary and career resources for physicians
Explore our related articles and resources on contract negotiations and noncompetes:
If you haven’t recently, please take a few minutes to contribute to our database! The data provided is used only for the purpose of our database to help physicians like yourself negotiate better compensation by helping provide salary transparency with relevant data. The data is completely anonymous and is only available to members of our Physician Side Gigs Facebook group. Contribution links can be found on our compensation data for physicians page.
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