Executive Health Check After Fifty: What Swiss Programmes Include and Cost

What an executive health check includes

An executive health check is a structured medical examination compressed into one visit: a long consultation, a physical examination, blood and urine tests, an ECG and usually some imaging, followed by a written report. The label describes a format rather than a fixed content. In Switzerland the same word, check-up, covers a 90-minute appointment and a three-day residential programme on Lake Geneva, so this guide sets out what the modules are, what Swiss providers publish as prices, and which parts the Swiss screening recommendations support after fifty.

The core is much the same across providers. Swiss Medical Network, the group behind Clinique de Genolier and Privatklinik Bethanien, lists a history interview with a specialist in internal medicine, a clinical examination, blood and urine analyses depending on the programme, radiological or cardiological tests such as ultrasound, ECG and lung function, an individual risk analysis and a medical report. Hirslanden International, which describes Hirslanden as the largest private hospital group in Switzerland, includes a physical examination, an abdominal ultrasound, a blood and urine test and an ECG in every personalised check-up.

Everything beyond that core is a module, and the modules are where programmes and prices diverge: a stress ECG and echocardiography, a colonoscopy, bone density, a skin check, a sleep study, a brain MRI. Some have a clear place after fifty. Others have none in a person without symptoms, and that is the line the rest of this guide draws.

How long an executive check-up takes

Anything from about 90 minutes to three days, depending on the modules. HMS, whose check-ups are carried out by specialists in general, internal and occupational medicine, publishes about 1.5 hours for its Basic Check-up, about two hours for Classic and about three hours for Premium, which adds a stress ECG and more extensive blood tests. Swiss Medical Network says its check-ups take half a day to a full day in most cases and up to two days depending on the modules, while Genolier and Bethanien each describe programmes organised over one to three days.

For scale, the NHS Health Check, offered every five years to adults aged 40 to 74 without certain existing conditions, takes about 20 to 30 minutes and covers blood pressure, cholesterol, weight and waist, family history and lifestyle. The time a private programme adds goes into modules, not into that evidence-based core.

Results take longer than the visit. Swiss Medical Network describes a closing discussion with the internist and a detailed report with recommendations in the following days, and it recommends booking at least two weeks ahead.

What an executive health check costs in Switzerland

Several Swiss providers publish a starting price, and HMS publishes a fixed price for each of its three packages. These were the published figures on 22 September 2026.

Three things decide what you actually pay. The first is the modules: at Hirslanden International a cardiology module starts at CHF 2,900 and a complete gastroenterology programme at CHF 4,800, on top of the personalised check-up. The second is what the price bundles. The three-day Health Diagnostic at Clinique La Prairie in Montreux includes a standard room and full board, and its examination list includes a chest CT with calcium score and, depending on age and history, a brain MRI.

The third is insurance. Swiss Medical Network states that its check-ups are self-paid and not covered by mandatory Swiss health insurance, and that any contribution depends on supplementary cover. Medbase says the same and adds that many supplementary insurers contribute. Customers of Helsana's PRIMEO supplementary insurance, for example, receive up to CHF 1,700 every three years towards HMS check-ups. For anyone insured in Switzerland there is an irony here: colorectal and breast screening, which Swiss internists count among the screening tests with clear evidence of benefit, are paid for by basic insurance when they are done on their own (breast screening only within a cantonal programme), as the next section shows.

At the far end, Calda Clinic in Zurich publishes an outpatient Longevity Package at CHF 32,000. That is a longevity programme rather than a check-up, and our guide to longevity clinic prices covers that tier.

What changes after fifty: Swiss screening recommendations by age

Fifty is where Swiss recommendations start to change, and most of them are set in federal law or by the national medical societies. The table summarises them for people without symptoms or special risk. A family history or an existing condition changes the schedule, and the ordinance on covered services provides for that separately.

Two consequences follow for anyone buying an executive health check after fifty. At fifty-five, a programme that does not settle colorectal screening has left out a test that the FOPH describes as effective and appropriate between 50 and 74. At seventy-eight, for someone without heart disease, a programme that measures cholesterol to decide on a first statin is doing what the Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine advises against.

Cancer screening after fifty: colorectal, breast and the PSA question

Since 1 July 2025 Swiss basic insurance has paid for colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 74: a test for hidden blood in the stool every two years, followed by colonoscopy if it is positive, or a colonoscopy every ten years (KLV Art. 12e, in the version in force since 1 July 2026). The upper age used to be 69. The FOPH's commentary on the change notes that 40 per cent of colorectal cancers are diagnosed after the age of 75, and that it is unclear whether screening still helps after 74.

No deductible is charged when the test is done within the cantonal programmes of the 16 cantons the ordinance names, from Basel to Valais. Zurich is not among them, and Swiss Cancer Screening, the umbrella association of the programmes, lists no organised programme there for either colorectal or breast cancer.

For women, basic insurance pays for screening mammography every two years from the age of 50 when it is done within a cantonal programme, with no deductible and no upper age set in the ordinance. For women with a moderately or strongly raised family risk, the ordinance separately covers mammography or breast MRI, subject to a formal risk assessment and documented counselling.

PSA testing for prostate cancer is where Swiss advice is most cautious. It is not among the early-detection measures basic insurance covers for the general population. The Swiss Medical Board concluded in 2011 that PSA testing in men without symptoms or a family history was not justified. The 2014 smarter medicine list of the Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine calls its benefit unclear, asks that men understand the risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment before testing, and says screening should not be offered over 75.

The Swiss urologists' patient information is addressed to men aged 50 to 70, and from 40 to 45 when prostate cancer runs in the family, and presents the test as a decision with no simple right or wrong. The smarter medicine campaign puts the trade-off in numbers: against 1,000 men not tested, one death is prevented, while in 140 of 1,000 men tested the PSA is raised without any cancer. Several Swiss programmes list PSA among their standard tests, La Prairie's Health Diagnostic and Medbase's Blood Test Essential for men from 45 among them, so decide beforehand whether you want it.

Heart, bones and vaccinations

Blood pressure is the simplest item on the list, and Swiss internists count it among the screening tests with clear evidence of benefit. The general internal medicine clinic of Bern's Inselspital recommends measuring it every three years from 18 and every year from 40.

For cardiovascular risk, AGLA, the Swiss working group on lipids and atherosclerosis, publishes two calculators. The AGLA calculator applies to apparently healthy people aged 20 to 69 without diabetes and gives the ten-year risk of a fatal coronary event or a non-fatal heart attack, from age, sex, blood pressure, LDL and HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, smoking and family history. The SCORE2 and SCORE2-OP calculator covers ages 40 to 89 and gives the ten-year risk of a heart attack or stroke, with a setting for Switzerland. For people from abroad, AGLA suggests considering the country of origin as the basis of the calculation, especially after a short stay or with an unchanged lifestyle. A check-up should end with that number and the risk category it places you in, not just a cholesterol value.

Bone density is assessed by risk rather than by age alone. The 2025 recommendations of the Swiss Association against Osteoporosis list DXA measurement after a vertebral fracture, after a fracture from minor trauma, or when secondary causes or clinical risk factors are present. They tabulate those risk factors for postmenopausal women and for men from 60: a fracture after 50, a parent's hip fracture, a BMI below 20, smoking, repeated falls, long-term steroid treatment and a list of diseases and drugs.

Vaccination is where sixty-five marks the change. Under the Swiss vaccination plan 2026 of the FOPH and the Federal Commission for Vaccination Issues, diphtheria and tetanus boosters are due every 20 years between 25 and 64 and every 10 years from 65. From 65 the plan adds yearly influenza and COVID-19 vaccination, one dose of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and two doses of the shingles vaccine, with the high-dose influenza vaccine preferred from 75, or from 65 with an additional risk factor. The FOPH and the commission also recommend RSV vaccination from 75, and from 60 with a high risk, published separately from the plan.

What the evidence says about general health checks

The review's conclusion is blunt: general health checks are unlikely to be beneficial. It covered screening for more than one disease or risk factor in more than one organ system, in adults not selected for disease or risk factors, and it excluded geriatric trials. It did not test a modern executive programme as such. That gap cuts both ways, and it is not evidence that the extras work.

Swiss internists draw the same line. The Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine's smarter medicine list of 2021 advises against regular comprehensive health checks in people without symptoms, citing no evidence of benefit for cardiovascular events, cancer mortality or total mortality, and the risk that false positive blood tests, imaging and ECGs lead to further investigations. It exempts evidence-based screening, such as age- and sex-specific cancer screening, blood pressure and cholesterol, and lifestyle advice. The same list advises against routine vitamin D measurement in people without risk factors, a test that appears in some check-up panels, Medbase's Blood Test Essential among them.

Whole-body scans sit outside all of this, and our note on whether a full-body MRI is worth it covers them.

When an executive check-up is genuinely useful

Read together, the evidence and the Swiss guidelines point to a narrower but real use. A check-up earns its price when it delivers the evidence-based items in one place for someone who would otherwise not get them: an internationally mobile executive with no regular doctor, someone who has fallen behind on colorectal screening, or someone whose family history calls for earlier or different tests. Swiss basic insurance itself recognises such risk groups: it covers colonoscopy when at least three first-degree relatives have had colon cancer, or one before the age of 30, and a skin examination when a parent, sibling or child has had melanoma.

It also earns its price when it answers a specific question: a symptom you have been putting off, a result from home that needs a second look, or a decision such as whether to start a statin. Sleep shows the difference between a question and a trawl. In the HypnoLaus study of 2,121 adults aged 40 to 85 in Lausanne, moderate-to-severe sleep-disordered breathing was measured in 49.7 per cent of men and 23.4 per cent of women, a prevalence the authors said might be attributable to the greater sensitivity of current recording techniques and scoring criteria. The US Preventive Services Task Force concluded in 2022 that the evidence is insufficient to weigh the benefits and harms of screening adults without symptoms. That statement does not apply to people who report symptoms such as loud snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing or daytime sleepiness; for them the question is diagnosis rather than screening, and Hirslanden International prices sleep diagnostics inside its pneumology module for that situation.

Where to be sceptical: long panels of blood tests and imaging with no question behind them. Each abnormal result that turns out to be nothing still costs a further test and some worry, which is the harm the Swiss internists' recommendation describes.

How to prepare for an executive health check

Preparation decides how much the day can conclude. The University Clinic for General Internal Medicine at Inselspital, which describes its check-up as evidence-based, asks patients to bring four things: earlier reports, a summary of personal and family illnesses, the vaccination record and a list of medicines. The rest of the list follows from the programmes and guidelines above.

Book early. Swiss Medical Network recommends at least two weeks' notice, and last-minute requests depend on availability.

Choosing an executive programme in Switzerland

Four questions separate programmes more clearly than their brochures do. Which of the included tests follow the Swiss recommendations for your age, and which are extras? Who explains the results, and when? What happens if something abnormal is found, and at what cost? And what does the price include: room, meals, follow-up appointments?

In our network, Clinique de Genolier and Privatklinik Bethanien run the Swiss Medical Network check-ups described above, and Swiss Medical Network says both belong to the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Calda Clinic in Zurich treats one patient at a time, and Clinique La Prairie in Montreux runs the three-day programme priced above. Our page on executive health describes the programmes in the network.

Tell us your age, your history and the question you want answered, and we can put the current published options and their contents in front of you. Where the honest answer is that your own doctor at home is the better route for the evidence-based part, we will say so, and our note on when Swiss treatment is not the answer explains why that happens. Write to us with the outline.

Sources

Prices are published starting points read on 22 September 2026, and providers revise them without notice; ask for a written quote that lists every module. The recommendations are summarised for people without symptoms or special risk.