Annual Physical Exam for Employees: How Companies Arrange It

Running the annual medical for a whole office is seven decisions: who’s covered, how the exam gets delivered, which provider, what it costs per head, when each department goes, who receives the results, and how finance gets billed. Most Philippine companies buy the same thing at the base, a Basic 5 package, which is a physical exam by a doctor, a CBC, a urinalysis, a fecalysis and a chest x-ray. Published per-head prices for that start at PHP 530 at TopHealth and PHP 850 at Kaiser Medical Center, and the same five tests cost PHP 4,200 at Makati Medical Center.

A 50-person program is roughly PHP 42,500 to PHP 210,000 at published retail.

What is a Company Annual Physical Exam Program?

The company version of an APE is the same clinical event as an individual one. What changes is that you’re buying it in bulk, on a schedule, for people who have opinions about it.

The Basic 5: What Most Programs Are Built On

Four providers define the Basic 5 near-identically on their own pages: Makati Medical Center, TopHealth, Maxicare and FriendlyCare. It’s a physical exam by a doctor, a CBC, a routine urinalysis, a fecalysis, and a chest x-ray.

The one real variation is the fifth slot: clinic and hospital versions use fecalysis, while the Maxicare version allows a random blood sugar or cholesterol test instead. If you’re comparing a clinic quote against an HMO card, that’s the line to check.

What HR Owns, and What the Doctor Owns

HR owns scope, schedule, budget and billing. That’s the whole list. What the results mean, whether someone is fit to work, and what happens next are decisions that belong to the examining doctor, typically an occupational medicine specialist. 

This split matters more than it sounds, and the section on what HR is allowed to see is where it becomes concrete.

Learn more about APE’s basic 5 in this related article

Step 1: Decide Who Is Covered

Scope decides your budget, your schedule and half your headaches. Settle it before you call a single provider.

Regular Staff, Probationary Staff, Contractors

Full-time employees are the easy part. The awkward ones are probationary staff, project-based hires, and contractors billed through an agency.

Most companies include probationary staff. Contractors are usually covered by whoever employs them, which is the agency, not you. Confirm that in the service agreement instead of assuming, because a contractor who was never examined by anyone is an easy gap to miss.

The Core Exam vs the Extras You Choose to Give

The core exam and the extras are two different budget lines, and it helps to keep them separate on paper. The Basic 5 is the core. A treadmill stress test, a thyroid panel or an ultrasound are things the company chooses to give, usually to senior staff, and they’re the first things to cut when the number comes back too high.

Tiering by Role

Splitting packages by role this way is normal. A common shape is Basic 5 for everyone, Basic 5 plus a blood chemistry panel and ECG at manager level, and an executive check-up package for the leadership team.

Two cautions. Age is a more defensible tier than seniority if anyone asks why, and a tier that reads as a status symbol tends to get talked about in the pantry.

Check What Applies to Your Company

Workplace medical exams fall under DOLE’s occupational safety rules. For what they require of your company, ask your HR or legal team, or the DOLE regional office covering your workplace.

Step 2: Pick a Delivery Model

There are three ways to actually get 200 people examined, and they fail in different ways.

Onsite Mobile Clinic

A provider brings staff and equipment to your office, usually including a mobile x-ray unit, and runs the whole batch over one to several days.

Most HR teams don’t know this exists. TopHealth runs its own mobile clinic for exactly this kind of program, and its APE packages start at PHP 530. The tradeoff is that you need parking, a room, and power, and you’re committed to whatever dates the mobile team has open.

Employees Go to a Branch on Staggered Dates

You buy a package, the provider issues a letter of authorization, and employees show up at a branch on assigned days.

This is the least demanding of your facilities and the hardest to chase. Somebody always doesn’t go. Expect to run a second round for stragglers and to build that into your timeline from the start.

Reimbursement

Employees arrange their own exam at any accredited facility and claim the cost back against a cap.

It’s the lightest to administer at the front and the heaviest at the back, because you’ll get twelve different test lists and a shoebox of receipts. This is also the only model where a comparable result across the workforce is basically impossible.

Comparing the Three Delivery Models

Here’s how the three models compare on the factors that actually decide which one fits your workforce:

	Onsite mobile clinic	Branch, staggered dates	Reimbursement
Who moves	The provider	The employees	The employees
Best for	50 or more people in one location	Multiple offices, small teams	Remote or scattered staff
Lost work time	Lowest, minutes per person	Half a day per person, typically	Varies, hardest to predict
Consistency of results	Same tests for everyone	Same tests for everyone	Whatever each person bought
HR admin load	Front-loaded on logistics	Chasing attendance	Checking receipts and claims
Facilities needed	Room, parking, power	None	None
Cost control	Fixed per head	Fixed per head	Capped, but variable per person

 

Step 3: Choose a Provider and Get a Quote

Assume you’ll have to ask for the price. The first quote you get typically isn’t itemised either.

The Seven Things to Ask for in Writing

Before you commit to a provider, get these seven items confirmed in writing:

• Itemised test list: Ask for the actual tests included, not just the package name.
• Effectivity date: Ask for the effectivity date on the price list, since a provider can have two versions live at once.
• Reporting turnaround: Ask for the turnaround in working days.
• Doctor interpretation: Ask whether a doctor reads and signs the results, or whether you’re buying lab work with no interpretation.
• Fit-to-work certificate process: Ask how it’s issued and to whom.
• Add-on pricing: Ask what an add-on test costs if an employee wants one.
• No-show policy: Ask what happens on a no-show, because that’s where the surprise line on the invoice comes from.

The one worth pushing on is whether a doctor reads the results. A package with no interpretation leaves your people holding numbers they can’t act on, and it’s the cheapest way for a quote to look competitive.

Why the Effectivity Date Matters

Makati Medical Center had two price lists live on its own domain at the same time. The web page said effective 1 March 2026, and a PDF still sitting in the site’s uploads folder said effective 1 January 2024, with different numbers on it. Its Basic 5 went from PHP 4,000 on the old list to PHP 4,200 on the new one.

That’s a small gap on one head and a real one on 500. Get the date on the document you’re quoting from.

Many Big Names Publish No Prices at All

St. Luke’s lists five package names and no prices. Hi-Precision publishes the full test composition of every package and no price anywhere. The Medical City’s wellness pages returned errors when we checked them in August 2026.

So for a large part of the market, a quote only exists after an inquiry, and third-party price lists for those providers are hearsay. Budget the calendar time for that, roughly a week of back and forth before you have three comparable numbers.

Going Through a Booking Platform Instead

The other route is to have someone else hold the provider relationships. NowServing lists over 30,000 doctors, 1,100+ hospitals and 200+ specialties, and its corporate program covers lab tests and APE packages through partner laboratories nationwide, with home service in select areas.

Step 4: Cost the Program per Head

As of 10 August 2026, every figure below is a published retail price from the provider’s own page or brochure. Corporate rates are negotiated per head and a real quote will differ, usually downward with volume. We’re not publishing a corporate discount rate because we don’t have a sourced one.

Published Per-Head Prices to Build a First Budget From

Published retail runs from PHP 530 for a basic package to PHP 9,999 for a full-year HMO-based plan, and what’s included varies as much as the price:

Provider	Package	Per head (PHP)	What’s in it
TopHealth	Basic 5 APE	from 530	PE by a doctor, CBC, urinalysis, fecalysis, chest x-ray. Onsite mobile clinic available
Kaiser Medical Center	Package A, Basic 5	850	Consultation plus the five core tests, 6 branches
SLU Sacred Heart	Pre-Employment Package	1,199	CBC, urinalysis, stool exam, chest x-ray, history and PE, interpretation
Kaiser Medical Center	Package C, Basic 5 + ECG	1,300	Adds a 12-lead ECG
Asian Hospital	Basic Wellness Card	2,800	Basic 5, body fat analysis, one room upgrade
Makati Medical Center	Health Investment Essentials	4,200	The Basic 5, outpatient
AIDE	Basic Health Package	5,000 to 5,700	14 blood and urine tests, home service, NCR
Asian Hospital	Premium Wellness Card	6,500	Basic 5, body fat analysis, concierge, discounts
Maxicare	PRIMA Access	9,999 per year	APE Basic 5 at Maxicare Clinics, unlimited consults, 24 Set A lab tests

 

Note the PHP 850 and the PHP 4,200. Same five tests, roughly five times the price, and the difference is the facility rather than the information.

What a 50-Person and a 200-Person Program Costs

This is published retail multiplied by headcount. Nothing else is in it, no negotiated rate, no onsite fee, no add-ons.

Tier	Per head	50 people	200 people
TopHealth Basic 5, starts at	530	26,500	106,000
Kaiser Basic 5	850	42,500	170,000
Kaiser Basic 5 + ECG	1,300	65,000	260,000
Asian Hospital Basic Wellness Card	2,800	140,000	560,000
Makati Medical Center Basic 5	4,200	210,000	840,000

 

A useful way to present this to finance is as a range with the tier named, rather than a single number. The spread between the bottom and top row is the entire conversation.

Where the HMO Sits

An HMO card and an APE program overlap less than people expect. Only Maxicare publishes an itemised APE with a price, PRIMA Access at PHP 9,999 a year, and the APE in it can only be availed at Maxicare Clinics.

One oddity worth knowing before you assume the card is cheaper. SLU Sacred Heart publishes an HMO rate higher than its cash rate on every package.

Browse our HMO directory to help you decide on your APE session.

Step 5: Schedule a Whole Workforce

This is the part that turns a good quote into a bad week.

Fasting Packages Have to Run Early

Anything with fasting blood sugar or a lipid profile needs an overnight fast, so those slots are early morning. That caps how many people you can process before the fasting window closes.

A plain Basic 5 has no blood chemistry in it, so fasting is often not required at all. Confirm which one you bought before you tell 200 people not to eat.

The Stool Sample Is What Delays Your Batch

Fecalysis containers have to go out the day before, and the sample gets collected at home. This single item is the most common reason a batch of results sits unreleased.

Send the containers with written instructions. A verbal briefing at the assembly won’t survive the trip home. Then plan a catch-up window, because a chunk of people will forget on the first pass.

Stagger by Department, Not Alphabetically

Split by department or team so no function is fully offline at once, and keep the customer-facing teams off the same slot. Give each group a two-hour window rather than a day.

Leave the last slot of each day empty on purpose. It absorbs the late arrivals, and without it they roll into tomorrow’s fasting group.

Companies That Want the Whole Thing Handled

If splitting this across a lab, a clinic and an HMO desk is the part you’re trying to avoid, talk to our corporate team about arranging employee APEs alongside consultations and medicine delivery under one company account, instead of managing three vendors.

Step 6: Handle the Results

Turnaround time, who receives what, and what happens after an abnormal finding all get decided in this step.

Turnaround

Routine results are typically ready in a few working days, with x-ray reading and any specialist review taking longer. Ask for the turnaround in working days, and ask what happens to it when a sample has to be repeated.

Who Receives What

The short answer is that employees receive their own results and the company receives fit-to-work status, which is the same shape as the medical certificates companies already accept for sick leave. Those reasons aren’t optional, and the next section spells them out.

The Abnormal-Result Path

The examining doctor flags what needs follow-up and tells the employee. HR’s job at that point is administrative: make the follow-up possible, protect the confidentiality of the finding, and don’t act on a diagnosis you were never supposed to have.

What HR Is Allowed to See

This is the part of a program most companies get wrong by default, usually because someone asked for a spreadsheet of results and nobody pushed back.

Health results are sensitive personal information, so keep HR’s access narrow. For the privacy rules that apply to your company, check with your data protection officer or the National Privacy Commission.

The Practical Design Rule

Design the program so the company receives fit-to-work status and the employee receives the full results. It’s the easier shape to run, because it removes any reason for HR to be holding clinical data at all.

	The company receives	The employee receives
Fit-to-work classification	Yes	Yes
Confirmation the exam was done	Yes	Yes
Full test results and values	No	Yes
Specific diagnoses or findings	No	Yes
Doctor’s interpretation	No	Yes
Aggregate, de-identified summary	Reasonable to request	Not applicable
Invoice and utilisation by headcount	Yes	Not applicable

The aggregate row is the one worth negotiating for. A de-identified summary, such as how many people were referred for follow-up, is useful for planning next year’s program and carries none of the individual data.

See our pre-employment medical clearance page if you need to get one today!

When a Result Comes Back Abnormal

Mostly, HR does nothing. The doctor decides, not the company.

The Fit-to-Work Classes

OSHS Rule 1967.01(3) sets four classes, and clinics didn’t invent them:

• Class A: “Physically fit for any work”
• Class B: “Physically under-developed or with correctible defects, (error of refraction dental caries, defective hearing, and other similar defects) but otherwise fit to work”
• Class C: “Employable but owing to certain impairments or conditions, (heart disease, hypertension, anatomical defects) requires special placement or limited duty in a specified or selected assignment requiring follow-up treatment/periodic evaluation”
• Class D: “Unfit or unsafe for any type of employment (active PTB, advanced heart disease with threatened failure, malignant hypertension, and other similar illnesses)”

Read Class C carefully. It expressly contemplates continued employment with limited duty and follow-up, which covers most of what an APE actually turns up in a working-age population.

An Abnormal Chest X-Ray

A flagged chest x-ray is a finding, not a verdict. Only active PTB sits in Class D under that classification.

The employee needs a referral and follow-up. What they don’t need is a decision about their job made from a radiology line by someone who isn’t a doctor.

Hepatitis B, HIV and TB

Government agencies set rules on screening and hiring for these conditions, and those rules change. Don’t add Hepatitis B or HIV tests to the package without checking with DOLE or a labor lawyer first.

Step 7: Sort Out Billing

The invoice at the end of a program rarely matches the quote exactly, and the gap usually comes down to three questions.

Per Head Versus Package

Most providers quote per head against a named package, and the invoice is headcount multiplied by the rate. Some quote a program price for a fixed batch size, which is worth checking, because you’ll pay for the no-shows either way.

Confirm the no-show treatment in writing before the first batch. It’s the single most common billing dispute in these programs.

Where the HMO Sits

If your HMO card includes an APE, you’re deciding between using the card and buying a separate program. Card-based exams usually have to be availed at the HMO’s own clinics, which removes the onsite option and puts the scheduling back on the individual employee.

Running a separate APE program alongside an HMO is normal. They’re different purchases and they don’t have to be settled at the same time of year.

What Finance Should Expect to Be Invoiced For

The package rate multiplied by heads examined, any add-on tests employees chose, and, in an onsite program, sometimes a mobilisation or minimum-batch fee.

Ask whether add-ons are billed to the company or to the employee at the counter; left unstated, it defaults to whichever is more awkward for you. For a wider price comparison across hospitals, clinics and home service, see the APE package price breakdown.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I budget per employee?

Published retail for a Basic 5 runs from PHP 530 at TopHealth and PHP 850 at Kaiser Medical Center to PHP 4,200 at Makati Medical Center. Adding a 12-lead ECG puts you around PHP 1,300 at Kaiser. These published figures were checked as of August 2026; corporate rates are negotiated per head, so a real quote will differ, usually downward with volume.

Can I see my employees’ results?

Set the program up so the company receives each employee’s fit-to-work classification and the employee receives the full results. Health results are sensitive personal information, so check with your data protection officer before asking for more.

Does paying for the exam or the HMO give us access to the results?

Not on its own. Keep the same split: HR receives fit-to-work status, employees receive their full results, and your data protection officer signs off before anyone asks for more.

Can we do the exam onsite instead of sending people to a clinic?

Yes, some providers run their own mobile clinic for company programs, including a mobile x-ray unit, and TopHealth is one of them. You need a room, parking and power, and you commit to the dates the mobile team has open. Onsite is usually the lowest-disruption option once you are past roughly 50 people in one location.

Do we have to include probationary staff and contractors?

Most companies include probationary and project-based staff. Contractors engaged through an agency are usually the agency’s responsibility, so confirm it in the service agreement rather than assuming.

What do we do when an employee’s chest x-ray comes back abnormal?

Refer, do not decide. A flagged chest x-ray is a finding rather than a verdict. The employee needs a referral and follow-up, and the doctor, not HR, decides fitness to work.

Conclusion

A company APE comes down to seven decisions: who’s covered, which delivery model fits your workforce, which provider to quote, what the program costs per head, how to schedule a batch without losing a week of productivity, who gets to see the results, and how billing gets reconciled. Get the scope and the provider quote right, and the rest of the process runs on the same schedule every year.

If managing labs, clinics and an HMO desk sounds like more vendors than your team wants to juggle, talk to NowServing’s corporate team about running your company’s APE program alongside consultations and medicine delivery.

Schedule your APE on NowExpress!