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It got so bad, she says, that she pondered whether to stay a hotel for a few weeks just to recover from a tonsillectomy.

One patient, Mariah Jacqueline Scott, 32, who lives in Highland Park, N.J., has had two hip replacements, two shoulder replacements, a splenectomy, a gall bladder removal and a tonsillectomy because of the disease.

Unfortunately, tonsillectomies are largely regarded as elective by insurance companies.

“This is not the healthy patient coming in for a tonsillectomy and ended up with a bad infection,” Ross said.

Procedures that were once the bread-and-butter of pediatric wings of hospitals, such as tonsillectomies, are now routinely performed on an outpatient basis.