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Noncompete agreements are a powerful tool for a practice or hospital to keep a physician from fleeing to a competitor, but the contract provision has fallen out of favor in a number of states and organizations. There are other options for practices and hospitals that want protection (but are based in states that forbid noncompete clauses, such as California and Massachusetts), or practices that don't want the possible negative publicity that can come with blocking a physician from leaving. Two possibilities are liquidated damages and nonsolicitation clauses.