Virginia: Ban on non-competes for health care professionals goes into effect July 1, 2026

At a glance

• Virginia has enacted a new law prohibiting employers from entering into, enforcing, or threatening to enforce non-compete agreements against most licensed healthcare professionals, effective July 1, 2026.
• The restriction applies to a broad range of healthcare professionals licensed, registered, or certified by several Virginia health profession boards, including Medicine, Nursing, Counseling, Psychology, and Social Work.
• The law allows certain customer non-solicitation provisions that limit healthcare professionals from soliciting clients with whom they had material contact during employment for competing services.
• Restrictive covenants entered into in connection with the sale of a business are generally unaffected by the new legislation.
• The law does not apply retroactively and forms part of Virginia’s broader framework limiting the use of non-compete agreements, alongside existing protections for low-wage workers and additional enforceability requirements effective July 1, 2026.

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Virginia has enacted a ban on non-compete covenants for most licensed healthcare professionals, effective July 1, 2026. The new law amends the Commonwealth’s existing non-compete statute to prohibit employers from entering into, enforcing, or threatening to enforce non-competes with any 'health care professional,' defined to include individuals licensed, registered, or certified by the Boards of Medicine, Nursing, Counseling, Optometry, Psychology, or Social Work.  The law permits customer non-solicits requiring a health care professional to refrain from soliciting or attempting to solicit any business from any of the employer’s customers (and actively solicited customers) with whom the employee had material contact during their employment for purposes of providing products or services that are the same or substantially similar to those provided by the employer. The law generally does not impact restrictive covenants entered into with a health care professional in connection with the sale of a business.  

The new law is not retroactive and so agreements entered into or last renewed before July 1, 2026 are not affected. 

This sector-specific ban operates alongside the Commonwealth’s ban on non-competes for low-wage workers and the more recent amendments to Virginia’s non-compete statute, which, beginning July 1, 2026, conditions the enforceability of non-competes (and certain non-solicits) on an employee’s receipt of severance or other monetary consideration, among other things. For additional information, please see here.