The American Academy of Family Physicians has called upon the Federal Trade Commission to adjust and finalize a proposed rule that would ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts.
The academy sent a letter April 6 to the FTC both supporting the proposed rule and encouraging additional changes to further increase its impact on the primary care workforce, according to an April 19 news release from the AAFP.
"We urge the commission to ensure that organizations employing physicians and other health care workers are included in the final rule to protect patient access and continuity of care with their family physician, and to support our nation's health care workforce," the letter read.
The letter also noted that 90 percent of physician agreements that were reviewed by physician search firm Merritt Hawkins include noncompete agreements.
“More recently, noncompetes have been documented to prevent physicians from practicing medicine in their chosen communities when they want to change jobs, thus potentially limiting patients' access to their regular source of care," the letter added.