As conservative protesters opposed to the president’s health-care reform came to shout down U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she touted reform in Denver yesterday, doctors continued to conduct business as usual. Increasing numbers of Colorado doctors are asking their patients to pay more money up front—and not just insurance co-payments.

A survey by NaviNet Inc. finds that nearly 60 percent of physicians have procedures in place to collect payments—such as deductibles—at the time patients visit.

“If they collect it up front, it eliminates the need for them to try to get it 30, 60, 90, 120 days, and in a lot of cases never,” Andrew Graham, president of Clinic Service Corporations, Colorado’s largest medical billing company, tells 7 News.

Insurance companies, often cast as the bad guys in health reform, sought to help guide reform earlier this year by voicing support for President Barack Obama’s plans. But they were caught off-guard when Democrats drew up a public relations battle plan, according to Time, which notes that Pelosi called private insurers “villains.”