Question: Florida Subscriber Answer: However, you should also be aware of how this handling of "new" comes into play when a physician purchases a practice. Often, when the practice that is purchased includes the medical records of existing patients, the physician is unsure whether his or her initial visit is considered new. This depends on how the new owner of the practice came into the group. If the new physician became a member of the group practice, saw established patients of that practice, and then purchased the practice and retained the group number, he or she could not bill a new patient service until three years had passed. Alternatively, if the physician purchased the practice and established a new provider number with Medicare, each patient the physician saw could be considered a new patient, even if the old records were referenced when seeing the patient.