Aspirus Tried to Keep a Duluth Physician From Opening Her Own Practice. A Judge Said Enforcing the Non-Compete Would Make Minnesota's Primary Care Problem Worse.

Practice Spotlight by DPC Insider — Practice Desk
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Sources: Judge grants injunction in Aspirus St. Luke's non-compete case | Duluth News Tribune · Doctor files suit against Aspirus St. Luke's in pursuit of private practice | Duluth News Tribune · Judge Prevents Aspirus St. Luke's from Enforcing Non-Compete | Minnesota Medical Association · Suing for Her Freedom: How Dr. Nyasha Spears Won Her Non-Compete Battle and Built Amity Creek Direct | My DPC Story · Minnesota physician alleges Aspirus' noncompete blocks private practice | Becker's Physician Leadership · Amity Creek Primary Care · Duluth doctor fights non-compete agreement with Aspirus St. Luke's | Fox 21 Local News · Recent Developments in Physician Non-Compete Agreements: A State and Federal Landscape in Flux | Maynard Nexsen · Direct Primary Care 2024 Data Brief | American Academy of Family Physicians

Non-compete clauses appear in physician employment contracts often enough that most physicians sign them without thinking they will ever matter. They typically include a set period and a geographic radius around the physician’s former work location. When a health system closes a clinic or discontinues a service line, the physicians inside it are left with contracts saying they cannot practice nearby, even if the employer created the gap.

Dr. Nyasha Spears practiced family medicine at Aspirus-affiliated clinics for more than a decade, most recently in Duluth, Minnesota. When her clinic discontinued services, she had a clear preference: stay in the community she knew, with the patients who knew her, and open her own practice. The contract said no.

The Lawsuit

In October 2025, Spears filed suit against Aspirus St. Luke’s in Minnesota’s Sixth District Court. The non-compete provision at issue would prevent her from providing substantially similar services within 25 miles of her former clinic for two years. Aspirus indicated it would enforce the provision.

In February 2026, a judge granted Spears a temporary injunction. The order cited both personal and public grounds.

The personal harm was direct: Spears “cannot start her own practice or continue her professional practice in the Duluth area if the non-compete is enforced.”

The public interest finding went further. The court found that “the record reflects a documented shortage of primary care physicians in Minnesota” and concluded that “limiting [Dr. Spears’] ability to practice locally would exacerbate an existing public health problem, in direct conflict with the public interest.”

According to reporting on the case, it was the first time, in her attorney’s experience, that the public interest argument had been accepted in court in a physician non-compete case rather than settling before a ruling.

What They Built

Amity Creek Primary Care opened in April 2026 at 5931 E. Superior Street in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood. Spears co-founded it with Dr. Kristin Lusian, also a family physician with prior experience in the Duluth area.

The practice runs on a direct primary care model. Membership is $90 to $130 per month for adults, depending on age, and $40 per month for children, according to the practice’s website. That covers unlimited visits, same- or next-day appointments, in-office procedures, and direct access to your physician — without billing insurance for each encounter.

Minnesota passed legislation in 2023 prohibiting non-compete provisions in employment agreements signed after the bill took effect. The 2023 statute does not reach contracts already in place, which is why an injunction was necessary rather than a direct statutory prohibition.

Other states have moved more broadly. Montana expanded its physician non-compete prohibition effective January 1, 2026, covering contracts entered into or renewed on or after that date. Several other states have narrowed or eliminated physician non-competes since 2022. At the federal level, the FTC shifted to case-by-case enforcement in the healthcare sector after abandoning its appeals of court injunctions that had blocked its proposed nationwide ban.

For Minnesota physicians who signed non-competes before 2023, the options are narrower. The Spears ruling produced a temporary injunction in one case, not a statewide rule.

What To Watch

The injunction is temporary. Aspirus has appealed it; a court hearing is set for October 2026. The final determination — whether the public health argument holds up past the preliminary stage — will matter to any Minnesota physician in a similar position.

Amity Creek is its own signal. The AAFP’s 2024 DPC data brief puts the average DPC panel at about 400 patients. If Amity Creek reaches a sustainable panel, the argument that a departing physician represents the competitive threat a non-compete was designed to prevent becomes harder to make.

A permanent ruling would be a different kind of signal.