Dispensarization: Which Tests and Screenings Are Covered Free

Dispensarization is a ready-made free check-up from the state: a set of tests and examinations assembled around the main risks of each age. There is nothing to choose — the list is fixed by Ministry of Health order No. 404n, tied to age and paid for by the public insurance policy. Below: how the programme works, exactly what the first stage includes by age, who gets the second stage, and how to complete it all in the fewest visits.

How it works: order No. 404n

The procedure is set by order No. 404n. It defines two formats:

• Preventive medical check-up — the short version: questionnaire, measurements, glucose, cholesterol, chest X-ray. Available annually from age 18.
• Dispensarization — the full version with cancer screenings and an extended set. At 18–39 — once every three years, from 40 — annually.

Do not confuse it with the employment medical examination: that one runs under different rules at the employer's expense — the differences are covered on the tests for work page.

First stage: what is included by age

The first stage ends with a short physician visit: the doctor assigns a health group and decides whether the second stage is needed.

First-stage lab tests: what exactly is checked

The lab part is deliberately compact — it is a screening, not a full work-up. Glucose catches prediabetes and type 2 diabetes; total cholesterol — the core of cardiovascular risk; the CBC after 40 — anaemia and inflammation; fecal occult blood — symptomless intestinal bleeding, the main early sign of polyps and tumours. Extended panels (ferritin, vitamin D, thyroid hormones) are not in the programme: if needed, the physician orders them separately, or they are taken privately. What a denser set looks like in later years is covered on the tests after 50 page.

Second stage: by indication

The second stage is not a "sequel for everyone" but a clarification of findings. Based on the first stage, the physician may refer you for duplex scanning of the brachiocephalic arteries (with combined risk factors), colonoscopy (after a positive fecal occult blood test), spirometry (smokers with symptoms), and consultations with a neurologist, urologist, gynaecologist or ophthalmologist. All of it is also free — but by referral, not on request.

The extended post-COVID check-up

For those who have had COVID-19 the programme includes an extended block: oxygen saturation, spirometry, an extended biochemistry panel, D-dimer when indicated, and further chest CT and echocardiography at the second stage. If the infection left you with breathlessness or fatigue, say so explicitly when signing up — the block is not assigned automatically.

How to sign up and what to bring

Three routes: the front desk of your clinic, the Gosuslugi portal ("My health" section), or the prevention department directly. Bring your passport and the insurance policy. Come in the morning and fasting: glucose and cholesterol are drawn from blood, and breakfast would distort them. Most clinics complete the first stage in one visit; it is recorded in the chart under code Z00.0 — "general medical examination", which is not a diagnosis. The Labour Code grants employees a paid day off for it: one day every three years, and from age 40 — one day annually.

The short version

Dispensarization is a free age-based check-up under order No. 404n: annually from 40, every three years before that, plus a yearly preventive check-up. Everyone goes through the first stage; the second follows indications — the exact scope for your age is set by the order and the physician. The results are handed over on paper or into the electronic chart — and you can upload them for decoding: the service explains every value and suggests what to ask the doctor at the final visit.