Elevance Health is wielding an agreement granting a handful of shares in the company to try and block a mid-level executive from moving to another job she took just days after her departure. The payer filed suit in federal court against a former regional vice president of underwriting, claiming she violated a stock-grant agreement entered into with Elevance last March prohibiting her from moving to a competitor for one year after she left her present job.
Bracewell’s Brian Patterson told Health Payer Specialist that stock awards often have the specific purpose of placing restrictions on the employee.
“From the employer’s perspective, the real focus is rarely the dollar value of the award,” Patterson said. “The greater concern is enforcing covenants that protect confidential information, client relationships and competitive interests. In the employer’s view, those protections generally carry far more weight than the monetary value of any single award.”
