Dentist Non Compete Restricted Offices Explained: Restrictive Dental Practice
How many locations should a dental non-compete apply to? Before we get into this specific question, let’s back up and talk about what is a non-compete clause. Non-compete clauses are standard in just about any dental employment agreement. Even if you’re with private practice or a big corporate practice, there’s normally always a non-compete. Now, they might go by a couple of different names. It might specifically say a non-compete clause. However, it may say restrictive covenant, which is a promise not to do something. And then it will list the language that would normally be included in a non-compete clause. And sometimes, they don’t go by any name. They kind of sneak them in there. So, you want to make sure that you read over your employment agreement very carefully, because this could really affect your career after your employment ends with whatever practice that you are signing this agreement with.
Can Management Restrict an Employee Dentist?
Let’s talk about what is in a typical non-compete clause. Normally, there are two components to a non-compete clause. One, the period that you’re restricted from competing. Now, this can typically be anywhere from six months to two years. It’s rare that it goes over two. And I would say most of the time I see is around two years. Sometimes, I can get negotiated down to one year, but again, normally I would say the average is anywhere from six months to two years. Now, we have our timeframe. This is how long you’re restricted from competing after your employment agreement is terminated. It might be terminated by you, it might be terminated by the practice, but your employment has come to an end. And this is when the non-compete clause would then become valid. Okay, so we’ve got the time for how long. The other component of it is where you are restricted from. Again, this really depends on where you are in the country. If you’re in New York, you’re not going to use miles. Typically, New York city’s non-compete clause will stay in city blocks because if you even go one mile, you’re going to knock out most of the city. So, that’s not reasonable. If you’re in a rural area, a very small town, sometimes the non-compete clause can go anywhere from 10 to 20 miles. And then if you’re in just a regular city setting, such as Phoenix, the mileage normally goes a little less.
It can be anywhere from 3, 5, or 10. I would say anything over 10 would likely be unreasonable. That would be something that you would want to negotiate down. So, we have our timeframe, you must know how long you’re restricted, and then you need to know where you’re restricted from. And this is where we’re talking about the specific questions today. How many locations should that restricted area apply to? This is easy. If it’s a private practice, and they only have one location you’re restricted from, let’s say three miles from the practice, which we’ll use as an example, well, that’s great. You know that you cannot practice dentistry within three miles of that location. That’s easy. But likely they get a little bit more complicated than that. Let’s say it’s a private practice or a small corporation, and they have multiple locations.
Sometimes, the language that they’ll use in the non-compete is that you’re restricted to that mileage. So, three miles from any location that you provide services for practice ABC. The complicated part here is when it uses the word “any location you provide services for”. If you cover a dentist who’s on vacation, so you work a couple of days, maybe a week at another location for the practice, well, that three-mile restriction now applies to that second location. So, you want to be careful when you’re reading your employment agreement. If you see anything that says any location that you provide services at, that should kind of be a red flag for you to really think about it. So, we talked about the language where they say any location you provide services for. A green flag would be if you see where they say you’re only restricted by the three-mile restriction from your primary place that you provide services for, and this is a little bit clearer.
If you only typically work at one location, you provide 90% of your services at one location, that’s your primary location, and therefore, you’re only restricted to three miles from one location. That’s great. It’s easy to follow, it won’t change in the future, and you’ll know if you’re in violation of it. Another sort of red flag that you want to be aware of is if it is a practice that has multiple locations or a corporation that has many locations. Sometimes, in employment agreements, it will have a language that states you’re restricted from any location that a corporation ABC owns. So, this gets a little tricky. Again, let me restate this. If it says any location from a corporation or practice ABC, so this gets tricky. You could be restricted, that three-mile restriction could attach to hundreds of locations that you’ve never even been to.
New Practice Restrictions
This is difficult because this can knock out a huge region. Let’s use Phoenix as an example. It could knock out the whole city if they have multiple locations around the city, even if you’re not providing services for them. You want to make sure you’re reading the contract very carefully. And if the practice is expanding in the future, they could add 5, 10 locations, and you’re going to have that three-mile radius attached to any of those locations too. So, just to be more concise here, you really want to know where you are going to be providing services for. That’s very important. It should be outlined in your employment agreement. Then the non-compete clause should only attach to your location, your primary location. You should really advocate for this because if it’s from any location you provide services for, you need to remember that in the future if you cover for a dentist who’s on vacation, your non-compete clause now attaches to that office that you only worked for for a week.
And it’s going to knock out that area. The other thing, again, is if it says any location that the corporation or practice owns. That’s a big red flag too because you don’t know if they’re expanding in the future. How many locations, it’s hard to tell. When you sign the agreement, you don’t know what you’re restricted from. In conclusion, how many locations? In my opinion, it should really be only from your primary location where you are providing services, where you have built up a patient base, and you’ve built relationships with your patients. You just want to be stopped from going across the street and then those patients going there that would be considered competing.
Dental Practice Employee Non Compete Length
And then two other things you need to think about as far as the non-compete. First, the location listed. As you know, big conglomerates are gobbling up these dentist-owned practices. And so, you could be in a city where there are eight locations for your employer. You want to make sure that it specifically says your location or maybe the two locations where you spend most of your time. You don’t want to sign a non-compete that states that it attaches to every single location owned by the employer, even if you never worked in those locations at all. This is especially true for dentistry.
If you’re in private practice, dentist-owned, and they only have one location, then it’s simple. It’s just going to be that location and nowhere else. But, if you’re in a big city and they own a bunch of locations, you want to make sure it specifically states your location, not all the locations. And then also, if you’re in a specialty, you don’t want to get stuck from not being able to do any kind of dentistry. You want it to say specifically what you’re doing for that employer, that way if you can do other things for the period like let’s say you just can’t move because of kids or family reasons, you could have an alternative for a year. That might not be ideal, but you could do that for a year and then come back to your normal specialty.
Employment Contract Questions?
Contract Review, Termination Issues, and more!
