Cost analysis for telemedicine services: A scoping review of literature on the cost-benefit approach

The integration of digitalization practices in accounting encompasses efforts to optimize resource allocation, promote effective cost management and support rational decision making through the use of innovative digital tools. In the healthcare sector, where a trade-off between available resources and patients’ necessities has been consolidating, performing economic evaluations is crucial. Telemedicine can allow to implement a valuable healthcare offer, while limiting its costs; most evaluations have adopted a cost-effectiveness approach, with oftentimes inconclusive findings and limited focus on other methods. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the scientific literature on telemedicine cost assessment to explore the cost-benefit approach within it. The scoping review methodology allows to map available evidence and assess the literature extension on the cost-benefit method. This literature analysis contributes to knowledge building on the approach and identify challenges that might prevent healthcare organizations from adopting it, while suggesting possible solutions. It allows to organize theoretical knowledge on how cost-benefit analysis can be applied to digital healthcare and from a managerial perspective it provides healthcare organizations with insights on how to structure their strategic resource allocation decisions, considering the necessary investments in technologies and healthcare personnel training, the direct and indirect costs of activities and convenience in converting healthcare services in telemedicine rather than maintaining the traditional modalities.