It most probably involves a scalpel or specialized instruments and surgical skill. More and more minor interventions, however, have been rebranded and billed as surgery, for profit.

And that was with health insurance through United Health Care. If the Prigge family was uninsured, it would have cost $705. The hospital considered the procedure to remove the splinter a surgery.

The doctor grabbed a pair of forceps — aka tweezers — and pulled out the splinter in “a second,” Lai said. That brief tug was transformed into a surgical billing code: Current Procedural Terminology ...