Public Comment Period for Noncompete Agreement Study

5 comments

1. Pennsylvania Medical Society | Sep 30, 2024
   Hello! Please submit your comments to the email address provided above publiccomment@phc4.org. for official record. Thank you!
2. James Latronica | Sep 27, 2024

   This most recent effort was appreciated, but the ultimate effect will be close to zero with the last minute changes. 

    

   For example, UPMC contracts (for the most part) areone year contracts which automatically renew after the first six months of the contract. The contracts are also not negotiable in any way. You get what you get. So I think it's pretty clear who pushed for the carveout that was made for one year restrictive covenants. Somehow we got a carveout for the benefit of huge hospitals and *not* an exception for small practices (for which a stronger argument surrounding restrictive covenants exists). It's illogical and infuriating and one of the most disappointing turns in legislation in my living memory. 

    

   85% of physicians roughly age 40 and younger are "employed" physicians, who work for enormous conglomerates with branches everywhere. This ratio will only continue to increase. Resident physicians start attending work with an average of over $350,000 in debt, having sacrificed most of their 20s (when people often start to buy houses and start families) to their training. The length of time of a restrictive covenant is irrelevant; doctors can't simply *not* work for a year. And to move out of the range of the covenant is likewise not feasible, especially if you're finally trying to start a family. 

    

   If you're worried about IP or "industry secrets", NDAs already exist for that for specific purposes. The average doctor is going to practice medicine identically at any given hospital, so this argument is just a canard. Broad restrictive covenants are simply anti-labor, anti-competitive practices that turn contracts into hostage situations and allow for routine salary deflation that functionally amounts to labor-side price-fixing. 

    

   If hospitals want to keep great physicians they will create an environment and provide compensation to do so. With restrictive covenants they are incentivized to do neither. We have given the most wealthy and powerful corporations in the Commonwealth an instrument of oppression for an extremely important workforce that is overburdened and in short supply as it stands. 
   

3. Susan Wiley | Sep 26, 2024

   I am a psychiatrist and I have treated many physicians over the years. They have felt disrespected, abused and overworked by their employers but unable to move their families outside of the region. The feeling of being "stuck" with a lot of debt, and a non-compete clause, left them feeling clinically depressed. This non-compete clause has no place in our current market where there are too few physicians and access to healthcare is so difficult, even in urban centers. Physicians need to be free to move about the market place to improve their lives, to give them some sense of control over their work lives. It may seem overly dramatic to say, but the health and well-being of our workforce is really at stake here. There is good data to show that burnout contributes to poorer patient satisfaction, more medical errors and higher rates of complications. We also know it contributes to physician suicide. 

   I expect there will be a flood of physicians looking for better circumstances if "non-compete" clauses are outlawed. This will put necessary pressure on large corporate systems to give their physicians more control over their schedules and work-life balance. 

    
4. Larien Bieber | Sep 26, 2024
   The non-compete clause is anti-competitive and should be repealed.  Doctors should be free to move on if their work environment is no longer suitable.  Yes, if they set up practice locally they will probably take patients with them, but that is appropriate and very much appreciated by patients.
5. David Scher | Sep 26, 2024
   The consolidation and expansion of large health systems in PA has created impossible paths to fulfill a non compete as a physician. The noncompete in medicine was in place to prevent private prqctitioners from taking patients to other practices. Since most physicians now are employed and patients’ choices are dictated by payer networks, the noncompete has little in the way of justification.