Employers in the healthcare and staffing sectors were put on notice on Sept. 10 by the Federal Trade Commission that their employment agreements—particularly noncompete clauses—may include “unreasonable” restrictions against their employees.
Andrew Ferguson, FTC chairman, sent letters to an unspecified number of healthcare companies and staffing agencies requesting that they review their employment agreements to ensure that they are in compliance with federal law.
These agreements, the FTC said in a statement, may contain overly restrictive noncompete clauses that limit the employment options of physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals when they leave an organization—and that, in turn, limits patients’ options when it comes to medical care, especially in rural areas where providers are already overburdened, Ferguson’s letter stated….