Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Therapists and Behavioral Health Staff in Utah?

Two rules decide it, and both turn on dates and on who the worker is.

The cap.

A post-employment non-compete entered into on or after May 10, 2016 may not last more than one year after employment ends, and an agreement that violates that limit is void (Utah Code § 34-51-201(1)(a)).

The ban.

On or after May 6, 2026, a person and a healthcare worker may not enter into a healthcare non-compete agreement, and one that violates the ban is void — the healthcare provisions were added by House Bill 270 in the 2026 General Session.

This is not a niche physician rule.

The statute's healthcare-worker list covers most of a behavioral health practice's clinical staff, from counselors and social workers to psychologists, substance use disorder counselors and behavior analysts, and it reaches prescriber hires — physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses — plus RNs and LPNs.

What is left to protect the practice: nonsolicitation, nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements sit outside the statutory definition of a non-compete, and two carved-out paths — a severance-based covenant and a sale-of-business covenant — survive.

Each is covered below.

This page is Utah only.

If you hire across state lines, the analysis changes with the state — the wider picture is in our guide to non-competes nationally.

Utah's rules are statutory.

Title 34, Chapter 51 of the Utah Code carries them, and the provisions that decide this question for your practice are these:

Two features of that map do most of the work in practice.

The dates control: the one-year cap applies to agreements entered into on or after May 10, 2016, and the healthcare ban to agreements entered into on or after May 6, 2026.

And coverage is keyed to Utah licenses, so the license each signatory practices under decides which rule reaches them.

The ban works off a statutory list of licenses, and for a behavioral health practice the list is broad — it reads like your staffing roster.

The statute's healthcare-worker list includes:

• clinical mental health counselors;
• clinical social workers, certified social workers and social service workers;
• marriage and family therapists and associate MFTs;
• psychologists and certified psychology residents;
• substance use disorder counselors;
• licensed behavior analysts and licensed assistant behavior analysts;
• behavioral health coaches and behavioral health technicians;
• physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses, plus RNs and LPNs.

The list is keyed to specific Utah licenses rather than to job titles or certifications, so confirm which listed license each staff member practices under before you decide what the ban means for their paperwork.

What a "healthcare non-compete agreement" is.

It is an agreement under which the healthcare worker will not engage in a service the worker may provide under the scope of the worker's license — for a restricted time, or within a specific geographic area, after leaving.

Both the time-based and the geography-based version are barred for covered workers in agreements entered into on or after May 6, 2026: for them, outside the severance and sale-of-business paths covered below, there is no duration or radius a new covenant can lawfully set on practicing under the license.

The exclusion.

The definition does not reach a license holder whose employment does not require or involve practicing under the scope of the license — for example, a licensed clinician hired purely as an operations manager.

A covenant with that hire, if you use one at all, is judged under the general rules and the one-year cap instead.

The questions a non-compete dispute turns on — time, area and a legitimate business interest — get mostly statutory answers in Utah.

Time.

For a non-compete entered into on or after May 10, 2016, one year after employment ends is the ceiling, and an agreement that runs longer is void.

For a covered healthcare worker signing on or after May 6, 2026, the question does not arise: a restricted time is itself what makes the covenant a void healthcare non-compete.

Area.

The same logic.

For covered workers, a restriction tied to a specific geographic area falls inside the healthcare-ban definition, so there is no geographic restriction left to draft.

For staff outside the list, the one-year cap addresses duration and the statutory sections this page draws on set no geographic limit — how wide a territorial clause can reach is a drafting question for employment counsel, not something those sections size for you.

Legitimate business interest.

What the code gives you instead is two conditioned paths: a reasonable severance agreement mutually and freely agreed upon in good faith at or after the time of termination — which may include a non-compete, even a healthcare non-compete — and a non-compete tied to the sale of a business where the individual receives value from the sale.

What "reasonable" means for the severance path is not defined in the sections this page draws on; get counsel's read before relying on it.

The cost of guessing wrong.

If an employer tries to enforce a non-compete or healthcare non-compete in court or arbitration and it is found unenforceable, the employer is liable for the employee's arbitration costs, attorney fees and court costs, and actual damages.

Whether any Utah common-law reasonableness requirements sit on top of the statute is not settled by the sources behind this page — one more reason the review happens before the offer, not after the departure.

Non-solicits survive Utah's 2026 changes, with one drafting rule that matters every time a clinician leaves.

Why they survive.

Utah's definition of a non-compete agreement expressly does not include a nonsolicitation agreement — or a nondisclosure or confidentiality agreement — so the one-year cap and the healthcare ban do not apply to them the way they do to covenants not to compete.

The new limit.

Since May 6, 2026, a nonsolicitation agreement that prevents a healthcare worker from informing a patient of the worker's current place of employment or future place of employment is void.

The statute's word is patient; in your practice that is the client in the chair.

Read the rule plainly: your client non-solicit cannot double as a gag on where the departing clinician works now or will work.

Draft it so the notice is permitted and the restriction targets solicitation — pulling active clients to the new practice — rather than the fact of the move.

Employee non-solicits.

They are nonsolicitation agreements too, so they sit outside the non-compete definition, and the 2026 void rule speaks only to patient notice.

Beyond that, these sections set no Utah-specific limit on their scope or duration — have counsel set both, narrowly.

How these clauses are treated in other states, and how the ethics codes your clinicians answer to handle client transitions when they leave, is its own topic — see our guide to non-solicitation clauses.

Between the healthcare ban and the one-year cap, the room Utah leaves for covenants is narrow — spend the effort where the law still allows something.

• Take non-competes out of the offer packet for covered roles. For any hire whose Utah license is on the healthcare-worker list, a time- or area-based covenant signed on or after May 6, 2026 is void the day you write it — and § 34-51-301 puts fees and damages on your side of the ledger if you try to enforce it anyway and a court or arbitrator finds it unenforceable.
• Audit the agreements already in your files. The ban does not void healthcare non-competes signed before May 6, 2026; those agreements remain subject to the one-year cap and Utah common law. Have counsel review them before you lean on any of it.
• Rebuild the client non-solicit around patient notice. Permit the departing clinician to say where they work now or will work; restrict the solicitation itself.
• Lean on confidentiality and nondisclosure terms. They sit outside the non-compete definition, so the cap and the ban do not touch them — that is the lane for genuinely sensitive material.
• Use the two paths that remain, deliberately. A non-compete can live in a reasonable severance agreement mutually and freely agreed upon in good faith at or after termination, or ride on the sale of a business where the individual receives value from the sale — the natural fit for an owner selling a practice, not for a staff therapist's offer letter.
• Handle training spend with the right instrument. Recouping supervision or training costs is a training repayment agreement's job, and it carries rules of its own that this page does not cover — see our guide to training repayment agreements.

Compete on what a covenant can no longer hold: schedule, supervision quality and pay are terms you control, and they help you keep clinicians without relying on a covenant.

Whatever the package, have employment counsel who practices in Utah read the final wording before an offer goes out.