Background : In 2014, Indonesia started its own Universal Health Coverage, the National Social Health Insurance (JKN) to tackle the issue of rising health costs and improve distribution of services. However, Indonesia’s health system remains unequipped to face the rising demand and costs of healthcare brought by JKN with deficits always reported till now.

Materials and methods : Articles were obtained through the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, Pubmed, Science Direct, Pro Quest, Taylor and Francis Online, Google Scholar, High Wire and Elsevier Clinical Key using the keywords “telehealth or synonyms” AND “health promotion or synonyms”.

Results : Indonesia is undergoing an epidemiologic transition. Almost 75% of Indonesia’s health spending remains focused on curative medicine. Indonesia currently houses the third largest smartphone user in Asia-Pacific and 100% internet penetration among students. Utilizing these existing technologies for healthcare is referred as telehealth. Telehealth has been proven to bring greater accessibility, quality of care and efficiency as well as reduce complications and costs in various studies. An effective and efficient telehealth approach would be in a form of an application that can be accessed through the web or mobile and integrated with social media. A hub-and-spoke model is also deemed the most effective and efficient system for telehealth in Indonesia.

Conclusions : Various studies have shown telehealth as an effective solution that can be used to deliver health promotion and preventive medicine to the masses at low cost and with high quality as well as equally effective to that of conventional means. The widespread and effective management of preventable diseases through telehealth, therefore, is expected to reduce the burden of disease in Indonesia, the enormous financial strain on JKN and be able to improve the nation’s health.