Question: Mississippi Subscriber Answer: According to AMA guidelines, there are additional factors to consider as well: The three-year rule is a well-established rule for "new" versus "established" patients. That is, if any physician within a given practice has a face-to-face visit with a patient within a 36-month period, that patient is considered "established." If visits occur outside of that time period, the patient would return to new patient status. If two physicians are of the same specialty and billing under the same group number, the three-year rule applies. If they work under different specialties or bill under different provider numbers, the second specialist may be able to report the patient as "new," as long as she hadn't seen that patient within the previous 36 months.