Ive always heard about some vague law saying physicians aren’t allowed to strike. Can someone explain if this is or is not in violation?
The issue that sometimes can come into play is that once a patient-physician relationship is established, it generally cannot be immediately ended by the physician. Depending on the state, this generally requires a certified letter and an agreement to provide 30 days of emergency care. This is independent of any contractual relationship between the physician and an employer.
So, if physician X is in a specialty that has long(er) term physician-patient care, then she may not necessarily be able to "go on strike" at 2359 on 25 January 2022 without risking a suit for patient abandonment.
Now, obviously, this does not apply in the same way to emergency medicine, anesthesiology, radiology, etc. There is not necessarily a requirement to pick up NEW patients, but you do have to provide care to the ones for which that physician-patient relationship has been established. So barring some specific state law to the contrary, you could say that effective at 2359 on Wednesday we will not take any new patients.
The other potential issue would be a possible antitrust violation if the physicians were not employed.