On the surface, doctors taking on salaried jobs at hospitals might seem like good news for health care costs. One driver of health care inflation is the “fee for service” model, which gives doctors an incentive to deliver the maximum feasible number of billable services per patient. Salaried positions, on the other hand, are supposed to keep down costs, because you get paid the same no matter how many tests you order.

But it’s not that simple, as the NYT notes:

“”In many places, the trend will almost certainly lead to more expensive care in the short run,” said Robert Mechanic, an economist who studies health care at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management […]”