Most HR teams planning relocation health screening for new hires in China start with the wrong mental model. They picture one medical exam that satisfies both the legal requirement and the employee’s wellbeing. In reality these are two separate exercises, run by two different parties, with different paperwork and a different owner of the result. Splitting them correctly is what makes first-90-days screening useful instead of a stack of PDFs nobody reads.
The Permit Physical Is Not a Health Benefit
Every foreign employee who needs a work permit or a residence permit in China completes a physical at a facility the entry-exit authority accepts, usually a local international travel healthcare centre. That exam exists for one reason: the authorities require it before they will issue or renew the permit. It is a compliance box, and it is not yours to design.
What the Permit Physical Actually Covers
The permit physical is a fixed menu set by the authority, not a clinical assessment tuned to the person. It usually includes a chest X-ray, blood work for infectious disease markers and a basic physical examination, but the item list and the accepted facilities are decided locally and can change. The employee, not HR, is the one who carries the form, books the slot and hands in the result. If you are unsure what the local bureau expects, the medical visa checklist for China is a reasonable starting point.
Why the Employee, Not HR, Holds the Permit Result
The completed permit physical goes to the authority, and the employee keeps their own copy. HR often never sees it, and in most cases should not ask for it. Treat the permit physical as an immigration step you track for timing, not a health document you own. Once that is clear, the second exam, the one you actually pay for, has room to be a benefit.
Where a Company-Funded Checkup Differs
A company-funded checkup is voluntary, confidential and yours to scope. Nobody issues you a form; you decide what it covers and who pays. That freedom is the whole point, and it is also why a careless design can misfire. Keep the two exams mentally separate in every email you send to a new hire, and never let the permit physical stand in for a proper baseline.
Why Start a Relocation Health Screening Right After Arrival
A new arrival has no medical history on file in China. If a problem surfaces six months in, the treating doctor has no earlier local measurement to compare against. A baseline soon after landing solves that.
A Local Reference Point Before the First Problem
Blood pressure, blood glucose, liver and kidney markers, lipids and a basic imaging set all read differently against a reference taken while the person is well. A first-90-days baseline gives the employee’s future doctor a starting line. It also gives the employee a chance to raise a nagging issue, whether that is sleep, stress or a family history they have been meaning to look at, while they are still settling in and have fewer competing priorities.
What a Sensible First-90-Days Baseline Usually Covers
Keep it unglamorous and repeatable, so next year’s result is comparable:
- Height, weight, blood pressure and a general physical examination.
- Complete blood count, blood glucose, liver and kidney function, and a lipid panel.
- Urinalysis and, where the local hospital offers it, a stool test.
- Chest X-ray and an abdominal ultrasound, both widely available.
- For anyone over 40, or with a relevant family history, a cardiac assessment and an age-appropriate cancer screening conversation.
Scoping It by Role and Family Status
Scope climbs with the person, not the org chart. A driver or a warehouse employee may benefit from vision, hearing and musculoskeletal checks that a desk role does not need. A field engineer posted to a remote project may warrant vaccinations, climate or altitude screening and a clearer evacuation plan. Spouses and children who relocate on a dependant visa sit outside the employment relationship but may still qualify for a family tier, which is often the benefit new hires mention most.
Coordinating Relocation Health Screening Across Cities
New hires rarely land in one place. A cohort might start in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen within the same month, and one person may still be finishing notice abroad. Build for that from day one.
Staggered Start Dates and Rolling Bookings
Anchor the window, not the date: give each new hire a 90-day window from their local arrival date and let the coordinator book within it. That absorbs flight delays, a family relocation or a late permit without reissuing invoices. Ask each person for two preferred mornings, then block the appointment; one coordinator holding all the bookings beats each employee chasing a hospital alone.
Chains, Coordinators and English Reports
If your hires scatter across cities, a hospital chain or a third-party coordinator usually produces a more consistent experience than booking each site’s best-known hospital separately. Look for locations near the office or the employee’s home, English-speaking staff or interpretation, and a report template you can read without translating it. Our notes on the multi-city checkup programme in China cover how to keep item lists comparable when the underlying hospitals differ.
Budget, Consent and Paperwork
The admin around a checkup programme is where most of the friction lives, and it is worth designing before the first booking.
Structure the Budget as Tiers by Seniority
One flat per-head number sounds fair and usually under-serves everyone. A three-tier structure, a solid baseline for all new hires, a wider panel for managers and an executive tier with more imaging and specialist time, scales with responsibility and reads as deliberate. Costs vary by hospital and vary by city, so set each tier by the item list and the location rather than a flat figure; the China medical cost comparison explains why the same panel prices differently across regions. For the allowance mechanics, see company checkup allowance per head in China.
Who Holds the Results
The employee holds the report. Full stop. HR can confirm that the checkup happened and that the invoice is in order, but should not receive the clinical findings. If a role genuinely requires fitness-to-work clearance, a safety-critical post for example, say so up front, in writing, before the employee books, and keep that clearance narrow and separate from the general report.
Signed Consent and Data-Privacy Expectations
Get signed, specific consent before anything is booked. The form should say what is being checked, who sees what, how long any record is kept, and that participation is voluntary and will not affect the employment relationship. Health data is sensitive in China and in the employee’s home country, so collect the minimum, restrict access, set a retention period and be transparent. Treat this as a design rule, not legal advice, and have your own counsel confirm your specific obligations.
Handling an Abnormal Result Responsibly
Sooner or later a result comes back flagged. What you do in that hour defines whether people trust the programme.
What HR Should and Should Not Do
Route the finding to the employee first, with a clear recommendation to see a clinician, not a diagnosis, and never a message forwarded to a manager. The employee decides what to share and with whom. Offer practical help: finding an English-speaking specialist, understanding the referral, or covering a follow-up visit. Never name individuals in any report you circulate, and never treat a flag as a performance signal. If the employee wants support arranging follow-up in China, they can send their situation to our team and we will map the next step.
Designing the Programme So It Gets Used
The programmes that work are the boring ones: one baseline, a clear window, a named coordinator and a straightforward consent form. See how others handled the rollout in the case studies archive, and treat the first year as a template you refine rather than a perfect launch.
Every rollout has its own wrinkles: the cities, the roles, the family tier, the consent form your counsel wants. Send us the shape of your intake and we will turn it into a plan, covering which checkup for which city, what the tier structure looks like and where to start. Begin here: tell us about your new hires.