Eight screening tiers is a confusing menu, and the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive is more than eleven times the price. The short answer is that the right tier is decided by your age, your sex, your family history and your symptoms, not by the size of the package.
This page explains what each tier adds over the one below it, how long each visit takes, and what named guideline bodies say about the tests inside them. Some of that evidence is unflattering to the expensive end of the menu. We have printed it anyway.
What are the eight tiers, and who is each one for?
The catalog is two ladders, not one. The first is built on ultrasound, bloodwork and physician review. The second is built on a full-body MRI, with CT and ultrasound arranged around it. Comparing a tier from one ladder with a tier from the other on price alone will mislead you.
Each tier is run by one provider, so choosing a tier also chooses the clinic. Visit lengths below are the ones listed on each package.
| Tier and price | Visit length | Provider | What it adds | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convenient, $299 | 1.5 hours | iHope Clinic | Holistic ladder, the entry point. Blood and organ panels, an abdominal ultrasound, ECG and three X-rays. | A healthy adult who has not had bloodwork in years and wants a short visit. A starting point, not a cancer screen. |
| Convenient Pro, $399 | 2 hours | Central Clinic Health Screening Center | Holistic. Adds cardiac and thyroid ultrasounds and a lung function test. | Someone who wants the short visit with a look at the heart and thyroid. |
| Vital, $699 | 2–3 hours | Central Clinic Health Screening Center | Holistic. Five ultrasounds including the carotid arteries, a DXA bone density scan and a wider blood panel. | Someone who wants an organ-level look and bone density in a half day, and will act on the findings with their own physician at home. |
| Premium, $1,699 | 5 hours | Eonway Health Management | Holistic. Adds a low-dose lung CT and a coronary calcium score, with a same-day doctor's debrief. | Someone who wants the holistic ladder's fullest day, including lung and cardiac CT, rather than an MRI. |
| Advanced, $3,499 | 6 hours | Beitou Health Management Hospital | Both ladders. A full-body MRI plus lung CT, calcium score, bone density, ultrasounds and blood panels in one visit. | Someone who wants both ladders in one six-hour visit and has accepted the cost of investigating whatever turns up. |
| Light, $1,399 | 2 hours, including the doctor's debrief | Central Clinic & Hospital | MRI ladder. Radiation-free full-body MRI, plus a low-dose lung CT and thyroid and abdominal ultrasounds. | Someone whose actual question is soft-tissue imaging, and who has read the ACR statement below and still wants the scan. |
| Complete, $1,699 | 2.5 hours | Central Clinic & Hospital | MRI ladder. Everything in Light, plus a DEXA scan and a heart calcium score CT. | The same person, plus a specific interest in bone density or cardiovascular risk. The USPSTF grades bone density B for women 65 and older and calls the evidence insufficient for men. |
| Plus, $3,099 | 3.5 hours | Central Clinic & Hospital | MRI ladder. Everything in Complete, plus a brain MR angiogram, a coronary CT angiogram and a carotid ultrasound. | Someone with a documented reason to look at blood vessels, such as the family history that guideline bodies use to justify vascular imaging in people without symptoms. |
Two tiers sit at $1,699 and are not interchangeable. Complete is an MRI-first examination listed at two and a half hours. Premium is a five-hour holistic day built on ultrasound, bloodwork and CT. The question that separates them is whether you want soft-tissue imaging or a broad organ-by-organ audit.
Visit length is worth planning around. Premium runs five hours and Advanced six. If you are flying in for a short trip, the difference between a 1.5-hour visit and a six-hour one decides how much of the day is left.
Whichever tier you choose, what to do about a result is a decision for you and a physician who knows your history. Nothing on this page is advice about your own body.
What does a general health check actually achieve?
Less than most buyers assume. A Cochrane review of 17 randomized trials found that general health checks offered to unselected adults had little or no effect on total, cancer or cardiovascular mortality. Its authors conclude that "general health checks are unlikely to be beneficial." Our article on whether annual checkups extend life walks through those trials in full.
That finding is about the bundle, not about every test inside it. Several individual screening tests clearly do change outcomes. The useful way to read a package is as a delivery mechanism for the handful of tests that are indicated for you, wrapped around a larger number that are not.
Which screening tests have real evidence behind them?
Grade A and grade B are the answer, because those are the grades the US Preventive Services Task Force gives when it recommends a test for the stated population.
The Task Force grades screening tests by the certainty and size of their net benefit. Grade C means selective offering. Grade D means it recommends against. Grade I means the evidence is insufficient to judge.
| Test | Population the USPSTF names | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Colorectal cancer screening | Adults 50 to 75 | A |
| Colorectal cancer screening | Adults 45 to 49 | B |
| Colorectal cancer screening | Adults 76 to 85, selectively | C |
| Screening mammography, every 2 years | Women 40 to 74 | B |
| Low-dose CT for lung cancer, annually | Adults 50 to 80 with a 20 pack-year history who smoke or quit within 15 years | B |
| Bone density screening for osteoporosis | Women 65 and older | B |
| Bone density screening for osteoporosis | Men | I |
| PSA-based prostate cancer screening | Men 55 to 69, as an individual decision | C |
| PSA-based prostate cancer screening | Men 70 and older | D |
Read that table twice. It is the reason a screening package cannot be ranked on price alone. A 46-year-old and a 68-year-old are shopping for different things, and neither is shopping for the same thing as a 68-year-old who has never smoked.
Why do age, sex and family history change the answer?
Because every recommendation above is written for a population, not for a person. Age, sex and family history move people between those populations.
| What moves you | What a named body says | The body |
|---|---|---|
| Age | Colorectal screening carries the strongest grade only from 50, and a weaker grade from 45 | USPSTF |
| Smoking history | Lung CT only for people with a documented smoking history, and it names the pack-years | USPSTF |
| Sex | Bone density screening for women 65 and older, and insufficient evidence for screening men | USPSTF |
| Women who meet the high-risk criteria for breast cancer | Annual breast MRI alongside mammography from about age 30 | American Cancer Society |
| Women whose lifetime breast cancer risk is under 15% | Recommends against MRI screening | American Cancer Society |
| Family history of premature cardiovascular disease | A risk-enhancing factor that can tip a borderline or intermediate risk estimate | 2019 ACC/AHA primary prevention guideline |
None of this is something a package tier can know about you in advance.
Which parts of a premium package are ahead of the evidence?
Whole-body imaging is the clearest case. The American College of Radiology issued a statement on screening total body MRI on 17 April 2023. Its position is direct. The ACR "does not believe there is sufficient evidence to justify recommending total body screening for patients with no clinical symptoms, risk factors or a family history suggesting underlying disease or serious injury."
The same college said the same thing about whole-body CT in 2002 and has not withdrawn it. Its concern in both statements is identical. Screening produces non-specific findings that "will not ultimately improve patients' health but will result in unnecessary follow-up testing and procedures, as well as significant expense."
The numbers support the concern. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in European Radiology pooled 10 studies and 9,024 asymptomatic participants who had whole-body MRI. The pooled confirmed cancer detection rate was 1.57%, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.22% to 2.03%. The authors concluded that modest detection rates, frequent incidental findings and absent long-term outcome data limit its current clinical utility.
The other side of that ledger is larger. An earlier systematic review in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging pooled 12 studies and 5,373 asymptomatic subjects. The pooled prevalence of critical and indeterminate incidental findings together was 32.1%, with a confidence interval of 18.3% to 50.1%.
Critical findings alone came to 13.4%. Our article on what happens when a scan finds something covers what that looks like from the patient's side.
Several components sold inside premium tiers also carry an explicit negative or unresolved grade.
| Component | USPSTF position for asymptomatic adults | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Coronary artery calcium score, hs-CRP or ankle-brachial index added to traditional risk assessment | Evidence insufficient | I |
| Resting or exercise ECG in adults at low cardiovascular risk | Recommends against | D |
| Vitamin D deficiency screening in asymptomatic adults | Evidence insufficient | I |
| Ovarian cancer screening, including CA-125 and transvaginal ultrasound | Recommends against | D |
| Pancreatic cancer screening in asymptomatic adults | Recommends against | D |
| Thyroid cancer screening in asymptomatic adults | Recommends against | D |
| Carotid artery stenosis screening in the general adult population | Recommends against | D |
None of that makes a large package worthless. It does mean that paying more buys more images and more numbers. More images and more numbers are not the same thing as more health.
Who should probably not buy the top tier?
Anyone with no symptoms, no risk factors and no relevant family history heads the list. This is the section most screening pages leave out.
- Anyone with no symptoms, no risk factors and no relevant family history. That is the exact population the ACR statement names, and the statement says the evidence does not justify recommending total body screening for them.
- Anyone who would not act on an indeterminate finding. Roughly one in three whole-body MRI subjects in the pooled review had a critical or indeterminate incidental finding. If the follow-up is unaffordable or unwelcome, the scan buys anxiety.
- Anyone who has skipped the graded tests. A 52-year-old who has never had colorectal screening is buying the wrong thing with a $3,499 imaging package. Colorectal screening carries a grade A, which nothing in a premium tier matches.
- Anyone who is really shopping for reassurance. The Cochrane result speaks to this directly. A bigger bundle did not move mortality across a quarter of a million randomized participants.
- Anyone travelling on a tight schedule. Premium and Advanced take five to six hours and can produce findings that need same-trip follow-up. A short trip and a large package are a poor combination.
What does this cost in Taipei?
Our tiers run from the Convenient package at $299 to the Advanced package at $3,499, in US dollars, and every tier is listed on the health screening page. Digital reports are delivered 2 to 3 weeks after screening, and an English physician debrief is available on request. Two listings go further: the Light package's 2 hours include the doctor's debrief, and Premium includes a same-day debrief.
If you are comparing this against what the same imaging costs at home, our full-body checkup cost breakdown covers that separately. Add-on pricing is covered in what to add to a screening and what to skip.
How far ahead should you book?
Most screenings need a few weeks of notice. Some need longer, and some can be arranged quickly. A few packages also run only on particular weekdays, which narrows the options inside a short trip.
The rule that matters is simple. Confirm the slot before booking the flight. If your dates are tight, ask rather than assume, because arrangements are made case by case and exceptions are common. The live booking calendar always shows the true earliest date for each package, so send precise date questions there rather than working from a general estimate.
The bottom line
Start from the tests that are graded for someone your age and sex, not from the tier that looks most thorough. If you have skipped colorectal screening, mammography or a lung CT you qualify for, buy those before buying imaging that no body recommends for asymptomatic adults.
If you have already had them and you want soft-tissue imaging anyway, choose the MRI ladder knowing that about a third of people leave with an incidental finding to resolve. Whatever you buy, the result belongs in a conversation with your own physician, not in a package description.
Sources
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Krogsboll LT, Jorgensen KJ, Gotzsche PC, 2019 — General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Colorectal Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Breast Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Lung Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Osteoporosis to Prevent Fractures: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Prostate Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Screening With Nontraditional Risk Factors (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Screening With Electrocardiography (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Vitamin D Deficiency in Adults: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Ovarian Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Pancreatic Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Thyroid Cancer: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- US Preventive Services Task Force — Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis: Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- American College of Radiology — ACR Statement on Screening Total Body MRI, 17 April 2023 (accessed 2026-09-09)
- American College of Radiology — ACR Statement on Whole Body CT Screening (accessed 2026-09-09)
- European Radiology, 2026 — Whole-body MRI for opportunistic cancer detection in asymptomatic individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis (accessed 2026-09-09)
- Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2019 — Whole-body MRI for preventive health screening: A systematic review of the literature (accessed 2026-09-09)
- American Cancer Society — Recommendations for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer (accessed 2026-09-09)
- Journal of the American College of Cardiology — 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (accessed 2026-09-09)
US / UK terms and the closest Taiwan context
Read this first: These are comparison aids, not claims that coverage, credentials, or care pathways are equivalent. Europe is not one health system; UK examples below refer specifically to NHS England.
Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), annual physical, health checkup
- What it means there
- Medicare describes the AWV as a prevention-planning conversation and explicitly says it is not a routine physical exam.
- Closest Taiwan context
- Taiwan HPA adult preventive services (成人預防保健) include defined history, measurements, examinations, laboratory items, and counselling for eligible age groups. Private self-pay checkups are a separate service whose contents vary.
- Do not treat as equivalent
- AWV, a US routine physical, Taiwan government-funded preventive care, and an executive self-pay package are not interchangeable names or benefit sets.
- What to ask
- Request the exact item list, eligibility rule, physician consultation, follow-up plan, and whether each item is NHI-funded or self-pay.
Screening vs diagnostic work-up
- What it means there
- Screening generally concerns people without recognized signs or symptoms. A symptom, abnormal examination, or positive screen can require a separate diagnostic assessment.
- Closest Taiwan context
- Taiwan uses 篩檢 for defined screening programs and 診斷／進一步檢查 for evaluation of symptoms or abnormal findings.
- Do not treat as equivalent
- Calling a scan a “screening” test does not establish that it is recommended for every asymptomatic person, covered by insurance, or sufficient to diagnose or exclude disease.
- What to ask
- Tell the clinic about symptoms and risk factors, then ask whether the proposed test is screening or diagnostic and what follow-up is planned for normal, unclear, and abnormal results.
