diff --git a/agent/consul/state/catalog.go b/agent/consul/state/catalog.go
index 4d0b820dec..18edd648b3 100644
--- a/agent/consul/state/catalog.go
+++ b/agent/consul/state/catalog.go
@@ -1690,16 +1690,13 @@ func (s *Store) ensureCheckTxn(tx *memdb.Txn, idx uint64, preserveIndexes bool,
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	if modified {
+	if modified && !preserveIndexes {
 		// We update the modify index, ONLY if something has changed, thus
 		// With constant output, no change is seen when watching a service
 		// With huge number of nodes where anti-entropy updates continuously
 		// the checks, but not the values within the check
 		hc.ModifyIndex = idx
 	}
-	if !preserveIndexes {
-		hc.ModifyIndex = idx
-	}
 
 	// TODO (state store) TODO (catalog) - should we be reinserting at all. Similar
 	// code in ensureServiceTxn simply returns nil when the service being inserted