Current Status of Non-Competition Agreements in Illinois

Editor’s Note: The legal status of non-competition agreements is an ever-evolving issue.  Following an unsuccessful attempt to ban all non-competition agreements, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has stated it will still continue to scrutinize health care-related contracts for reasonableness and anticompetitive effects.  In addition, Illinois licensed physicians are still bound by lllinois law on non-competition provisions. The ICS is providing this updated information to inform members about important enforcement policies that may impact existing and future physician business agreements.

Non-competition clauses are common in physician employment agreements.  According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a non-compete clause is “a contractual term between an employer and a worker that blocks the worker from working for a competing employer, or starting a competing business, typically within a certain geographic area and period of time after the worker’s employment ends.”