Is eliminating noncompete clauses cure SC needs for doctor shortage?

Banning hospital systems from placing restrictions on when and where South Carolina physicians can work after leaving a job is on the table this year.

The change could help alleviate existing doctor shortages in South Carolina by luring new health professionals to the state, some testifying physicians told lawmakers. In South Carolina, 42 of 46 counties have either a partial or whole primary care health professional shortage area designation, according to 2024 data from the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium.

“South Carolina cannot be disadvantaged in any way competing to bring South Carolina physicians into South Carolina and keeping them here,” said Jonathan Gleason, the chief clinical officer at Prisma Health, during a hearing Tuesday.

“So we need to agree that anything that will lead to physicians leaving particularly rural and underserved communities when they don’t want to is something that’s not good for South Carolina, for access to care, for our patients, for health outcomes,” he said.

In South Carolina, hospital systems can place perimeters on when and where physicians practice after leaving their current job. Lawmakers are considering banning the practice.

For example, under a “noncompete clause” of a contract, a physician may be prohibited from working 30 miles away from their current job for a year. Gleason told lawmakers Prisma Health physicians did not have noncompete contracts.

Physicians’ contracts with a noncompete clause interfere with patients’ ability to choose their doctors, the bill reads. The bill, which unanimously passed out of a panel of House lawmakers Tuesday, prohibits the clauses.

Any restrictions on where a physician can practice after the termination of their contract would be banned. The physician also must be allowed to continue their relationship with a patient, at the patient’s request.

Some hospitals want to reclaim more expenses from training or onboarding if a physician leaves, said Austin Smallwood, the executive director of public policy at the South Carolina Hospital Association. The bill already allows for repayment of signing and retention bonuses or relocation expenses when the physician stays for less than three years.

Medical University of South Carolina uses noncompete contracts with its physicians, wrote Kristin Merkel, a spokesperson for the hospital system, in an email. MUSC physicians can “buy-out” of their contract, Merkel wrote.

Banning noncompete clauses could be an incentive to bring more doctors to the state, said Cleave Ham, a radiologist and former president of the Charleston County Medical Association. It would also enable physicians to share information and expertise, he said.

“I think that physicians are looking for this,” Ham said. “We have a restricted supply of physicians in this country. And to me, it’s almost like when you try to get economic incentives to businesses to relocate. Here, we try and do that with physicians.”

The bill could also incentivize doctors to open more private practices in their community, said Jessica Mendelsohn, the founder of New South Family Medicine in Fort Mill.

“Noncompetes do not build loyalty,” she told lawmakers. “They create resentment, burnout and workforce instability.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 5:00 AM.