Louisiana legislators have passed a bill limiting the length and geographical scope of noncompetes for specialty and primary care physicians, National Law Review reported July 27.
Senate Bill 165, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025, required noncompetes to expire three years for primary care physicians or five years for other physicians from the effective date of the initial agreement.
The law also limits the scope of the noncompete to cover the parish — Louisiana's equivalent of a county — where the physician's principal practice is located and any "two contiguous parishes in which the employer carries on a like business," according to the report.
The restrictions do not apply to rural hospitals and hospitals that operate in medically underserved areas and rural parishes.