A checkup is a preventive medical visit where a healthcare provider evaluates your overall health, even when you’re feeling fine. The goal isn’t to treat a specific problem but to catch potential issues early, update your screenings, and create a baseline picture of how your body is doing. For most healthy adults, a checkup happens once a year, though the specific tests and screenings you’ll get depend on your age, sex, and personal risk factors.
What Happens During a Checkup
A standard checkup has three main parts: a review of your history, a physical exam, and any screenings or lab work your provider orders based on your profile.
The visit typically starts with a conversation. Your provider will go over your medical and surgical history, your family’s health history, and any medications or supplements you’re currently taking. They’ll also ask about lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol use, diet, and exercise. This is your chance to bring up symptoms you’ve noticed, even minor ones, and to mention any health goals or concerns.
The physical exam itself covers your body’s major systems. Your provider will check your skin, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, heart, and lungs. They’ll measure your vital signs: blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and breathing rate. Height and weight are recorded to calculate your BMI. Depending on your age and sex, additional exams like a breast exam, pelvic exam, or prostate check may be included.
Common Blood Tests and What They Reveal
Your provider may order routine blood work during a checkup, especially if you haven’t had labs drawn recently. Three panels cover the basics:
- Complete blood count (CBC): Provides a snapshot of your red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and hemoglobin. It can flag infections, anemia, and clotting issues.
- Comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP): Measures how well your liver and kidneys are functioning, along with electrolytes, sodium, potassium, and calcium levels. It also includes a fasting blood glucose reading, which can signal diabetes risk.
- Standard lipid panel: Checks your HDL (“good”) cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and triglycerides to assess cardiovascular risk.
Not every checkup requires blood work. Your provider decides based on your age, past results, and risk factors. If labs are ordered, you may be asked to fast for 8 to 12 hours beforehand so that glucose and cholesterol readings are accurate.
Preventive Screenings by Age
Screenings are one of the most valuable parts of a checkup because they detect problems before symptoms appear. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force sets the guidelines most providers follow, and recommendations shift as you get older.
Blood pressure screening starts at age 18 and continues at every visit throughout your life. Diabetes screening is recommended for adults aged 35 to 70 who are overweight or obese, though your provider may test earlier if you have other risk factors. Colorectal cancer screening begins at 45 for everyone and continues through age 75, using methods like a colonoscopy or stool-based test.
For women, cervical cancer screening starts at age 21 with a Pap test every three years. Starting at 30, you can switch to a Pap every three years, an HPV test every five years, or both tests together every five years. Mammograms are now recommended every two years starting at age 40 and continuing through age 74. Women with a strong family history of breast cancer, such as a mother or sister diagnosed at a young age, may need to start screening earlier or add additional imaging.
For adults with a significant smoking history (20 pack-years or more who still smoke or quit within the past 15 years), annual lung cancer screening with a low-dose CT scan is recommended between ages 50 and 80.
Mental Health Is Part of the Checkup
Many primary care providers now screen for depression and anxiety as a routine part of the visit. You may be handed a short questionnaire in the waiting room or on a tablet before the exam. The most widely used tools are brief, validated surveys: a two-item screener for depression, a two-item screener for anxiety, or slightly longer versions with nine and seven questions respectively. These aren’t diagnostic on their own, but a positive result prompts a deeper conversation with your provider about what you’re experiencing and whether treatment or a referral would help.
For adolescents, depression screening becomes routine starting at age 12, and behavioral and emotional screenings are recommended annually from birth through age 21. Suicide risk screening has been added to adolescent depression evaluations in recent years.
Checkups for Children
Pediatric checkups, often called well-child visits, follow a more frequent schedule than adult exams. Babies are seen multiple times in their first year, then at regular intervals through adolescence. These visits focus on growth tracking, developmental milestones, vaccinations, and behavioral or social-emotional screening.
At key ages, providers check whether children are meeting physical and cognitive benchmarks, and screen for conditions like autism spectrum disorder. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal screening for developmental delays, maternal depression (at infant visits), and oral health at selected appointments. As kids grow into teenagers, the focus shifts toward mental health, substance use, and reproductive health.
Medicare Wellness Visits vs. Standard Physicals
If you’re on Medicare, the terminology matters because it affects what you pay. Medicare covers two types of preventive visits at no cost to you: an Initial Preventive Physical Exam within your first 12 months of Part B coverage, and an Annual Wellness Visit every 12 months after that. The wellness visit focuses on updating a personalized prevention plan and conducting a health risk assessment.
What Medicare does not cover is a routine physical exam, meaning a general head-to-toe exam unrelated to a specific symptom or diagnosis. If your visit is coded as a routine physical rather than a wellness visit, you could be responsible for 100% of the cost. It’s worth confirming with your provider’s office beforehand that the visit will be billed as a wellness visit.
What Insurance Covers
Under the Affordable Care Act, most private insurance plans must cover preventive services with no copay, deductible, or coinsurance. This includes any screening that carries an “A” or “B” rating from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, immunizations recommended by the CDC, and preventive care guidelines for children, adolescents, and women supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration. In practical terms, your annual checkup, routine vaccinations, and standard screenings like blood pressure checks and mammograms should be fully covered as long as you see an in-network provider.
The coverage applies specifically to preventive care. If your provider discovers a problem during the checkup and orders diagnostic tests or treatment, those additional services may be billed separately and could involve out-of-pocket costs.
How to Prepare for Your Visit
A little preparation makes the visit more productive. Bring a current list of all medications and supplements you take, including dosages. If you’ve been tracking anything at home, like blood pressure readings or blood sugar levels, bring that data along. Write down any symptoms you’ve noticed, even if they seem minor, and any questions you want to ask. Knowing your family’s health history, particularly conditions like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer in close relatives, helps your provider tailor screening recommendations to your actual risk.
If blood work is expected, ask when you schedule the appointment whether you need to fast. Wearing loose, comfortable clothing can make the physical exam quicker and easier. And if you’re seeing a new provider for the first time, request that your previous medical records be transferred ahead of the appointment so your new provider has a complete picture from the start.