mHealth Journal: Overview of Telehealth in the United States Since the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: A Narrative Review

mHealth Journal: Overview of telehealth in the United States since the COVID-19 public health emergency: a narrative review

This narrative review focuses on highlighting telehealth research and evaluation that took place from March 2020 to February 2023 in the outpatient setting of the United States health care system. The research conducted during the COVID-19 PHE shows that telehealth was primarily used as a substitute for in-person care, to maintain continuity of care for established patients, and has not had a negative impact on clinical outcomes or resulted in increasing health care costs. Studies show high patient and physician satisfaction, similar clinical outcomes and suggest that telehealth is used as a substitute for in-person care. The findings of this narrative review have direct implications for key stakeholders using telehealth now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients, physicians and providers, health care leaders and administrators, as well as policymakers should consider how telehealth should continue to be reimbursed and regulated even as the COVID-19 PHE expired in May 2023.