Committee hears bipartisan bill to bar noncompetes for health care providers; sponsors urge preserving Senate compromise

Representatives Brown and Garcia Sander presented Senate Bill 83 to the Business, Labor & Employment Committee, describing a bipartisan measure to prohibit restrictive covenants — including noncompete and non-solicit agreements — for physicians and certain other health-care professionals.

Sponsors said the aim is to protect continuity of care, particularly in rural and underserved areas, by allowing patients to keep seeing trusted providers and by removing contractual barriers that prevent providers from practicing where they are needed. Brown said roughly 40% of physicians nationwide remain bound by noncompetes and that the practice contributes to workforce shortages by forcing clinicians to leave communities.

Representative Garcia Sander stressed the bill’s negotiated language and urged the committee to preserve the Senate amendments that were developed in negotiation with hospitals and other stakeholders. Bridget Frazier of the Colorado Hospital Association testified in a monitor position, saying the Senate amendments represent a carefully negotiated compromise that allows physician mobility while protecting hospitals’ ability to recover recruitment costs; she said the bill maintains legal remedies for contractual breaches and includes a repayment provision (recruitment-related repayment terms) to account for hiring investments.

Sponsors indicated they will offer a technical amendment in the House to limit the Senate amendments’ special protections to agreements between hospitals and physicians, consistent with the bill’s primary focus on physicians. Committee members had questions about balancing employer recruitment costs and patient access. The hearing closed with sponsors and hospital representatives urging continued negotiation to keep the carefully-crafted balance that passed the Senate.