Idaho can’t afford to lose more doctors with noncompete agreements | Opinion
Idaho is consistently ranked among the states with the lowest number of physicians per capita.
That problem has been exacerbated by Idaho’s strict abortion ban that’s driving doctors out of the state.
The last thing Idaho needs is something else that pushes away medical professionals.
But that’s exactly what could happen with a noncompete clause, one of which is at the heart of a lawsuit brought by a doctor who was formerly at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
According to a story by the Idaho Statesman’s Angela Palermo, trauma surgeon Dr. Parker Fillmore was dismissed from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in late 2023 and was barred from getting another job in the Boise area because of a noncompete agreement he’d signed years earlier.
We can understand the need for a noncompete agreement in very rare circumstances, such as when a business makes a substantial investment in an employee, such as for recruiting, training and education, as pointed out by former St. Luke’s CEO David Pate.
In such cases, the company has a reasonable desire to protect its investment by making sure that employee doesn’t bolt for a competitor after getting trained.
But that wasn’t the case here. Fillmore graduated from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, completed his residency in general surgery at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, did a fellowship in burn, wound and plastic reconstruction at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and then did a fellowship in surgical critical care at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.
He then came to Idaho in 2016 to take a job with Saint Alphonsus.
After leaving Saint Al’s, Fillmore went to work for West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, a smaller local hospital. But Saint Alphonsus told him this was a violation of his noncompete agreement.
His contract stipulates that he cannot provide clinical, administrative or on-call trauma services at any other hospital within 90 miles for 18 months after the termination of his contract.
That certainly would force him out of the Treasure Valley, and could force him to leave the state.
Trying to enforce a noncompete in this particular case seems inappropriate and indeed harmful to the overall health system.
The American Medical Association, which estimates that noncompetes affect 37% to 45% of physicians in the U.S., advises physicians not to sign them, according to previous Statesman reporting.
The American College of Surgeons wrote in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in 2023 that noncompete clauses are detrimental to patient care and should be banned in physician contracts.
The FTC voted last year to ban such agreements, but enforcement is on hold until the courts review it, according to the American Optometric Association.
In the meantime, we don’t favor legislation that was proposed this session by state Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, in House Bill 486, which would have prohibited noncompete agreements in Idaho. They are a bad idea in a large majority of cases, but we don’t favor this heavy-handed government intrusion, recognizing that some business circumstances could call for them.
But even in such circumstances, noncompete agreements should be limited in scope and time frame. We also tend to agree that health care shouldn’t be so competitive that a doctor can’t go to work for another nearby hospital.
If it hasn’t done so already, we hope that Saint Alphonsus is reconsidering its noncompete policy.
Idaho can’t afford to lose any more doctors.