Covenants not to compete and other restrictive covenants
Duration, radius, and what work is restricted, read against the job you would take next.
Review the listPhysician & Mid-level Provider Agreements
Review and negotiation of provider employment agreements before they are signed.
There is no standard physician or mid-level agreement. The clauses that matter—restrictive covenants, compensation, tail coverage—are easy to skim and expensive to live with. The useful time to read them is before the offer is signed.
Reviewed by Joseph Rivet · September 29, 2026
The Challenge
Read the leave before you read the salary
Noncompete radius, duration, and what counts as a competing activity decide your next job. So does the definition of termination for cause. Those clauses are the price of walking away.
Compensation and assignment of professional fees
How production pay is calculated, when it is paid, and who bills after you leave.
Review the listTermination provisions
What changes if they end the agreement without cause, and what changes if they claim cause.
Review the listDispute resolution
Whether a disagreement goes to court, a named venue, or arbitration.
Review the listProfessional liability insurance, including tail coverage
Occurrence or claims-made coverage, and who buys the tail if you leave.
Review the listEmployer-paid or reimbursed expenses
Which costs the employer pays, and which ones stay with you after notice.
Review the list
Who We Help
Who this work is for
The firm reviews these agreements the way a working clinician will experience them: what happens to production pay, who owns the charts, and what it costs to leave. That is a contract problem and a revenue-cycle problem.
- Physicians and APPs with a new offer in hand
- Groups rewriting a template after a departure went badly
- Employers who want a covenant that a court might enforce
- Providers comparing two offers on more than the salary line
Our Process
First steps you can take today
These steps organize the file. They are not a substitute for counsel.
- 1
Get the full agreement, not a summary email, including exhibits.
- 2
Highlight noncompete, termination, compensation, and malpractice paragraphs.
- 3
Write down your planned next job and see whether the covenant would block it.
- 4
Ask who pays tail if you leave without cause, and who pays if they terminate you.
Read the leave before you read the salary
Noncompete radius, duration, and what counts as a competing activity decide your next job. So does the definition of termination for cause. Those clauses are the price of walking away.
Tail coverage is the other number people miss. Who pays it, and when, should be in the offer—not in a later HR email.
Compensation that matches how you will actually work
Production formulas, collections timing, and assignment of professional fees determine take-home more than the base. If wRVU definitions are vague, the bonus will be too.
The firm’s review is a markup and a conversation. It is not a promise that the employer will move.
Common questions
- When is it too late to negotiate?
- After you start, most leverage is gone. Before you sign, even a polite markup can move tail, notice, or a covenant radius. Signing ‘and we’ll fix it later’ rarely holds.
- Are noncompetes enforceable in Michigan?
- They can be, if they are reasonable in time, geography, and scope. Reasonable is fact-specific. The checklist on this page is how to see the clause clearly before anyone argues about it.
800 E. Ellis Road, Ste 515, Norton Shores, MI 49441
(231) 799-4870
info@rivethealthlaw.com
rivethealthlaw.com
+
Offer desk
8 itemsMark these before you sign
Work through the agreement with a pen. If a box stays empty, that clause still needs an answer—not a handshake.
Check items off as you collect them. Your progress is saved on this device.
This sheet is a gather list for your own file. It is not legal advice.
When you want help
Bring the letter, the remittance, or the agreement.
If the first steps on this page raised a question, the firm can sit with the file.
This page is educational. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Facts, contracts, and appeal windows control the next step.