Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the general public's perception and needs for telehealth services. Methods: The study randomly sampled 500 patients diagnosed with heart disease, hypertension or diabetes from the database of one regional hospital located in Taipei City. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to their addresses. The final effective sample size was 125. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square test and multi-regression analysis were utilized in the analysis. Results: Most of the respondents (77.6%) had never heard of or did not know about telehealth before the survey. After reading the brief introduction to telehealth in the questionnaire, most people agreed that there would be benefits from telehealth such as resourcesavings for National Health Insurance (NHI), ageing at home with comfort, early diagnosis and treatment of diseases, instantaneous medical assistance, assistance with self-care skills, and improved communication between patients and doctors. More than 80% of the respondents agreed that the factors influencing their demand for the services included whether or not (1) the services were covered by NHI; (2) they themselves had the needs; (3) the telehealth equipment was stable, reliable and user-friendly; (4) the medical professionals were nice to patients and provided on-time services. More than 88% of the respondents thought telehealth should be covered by NHI. Only 50% agreed that users should pay for the services. As to the demand for telehealth, only 13.6% were willing to purchase the service at present. When asked about an acceptable monthly payment for using the telehealth services, 79.2% of the respondents chose NT$1,000 or less. Conclusions: The results showed that the largest barrier to the development of telehealth services is the lack of knowledge among the general public. However, this survey demonstrated that people agree with the concept and the potential benefits of telehealth services when they have information about them. The second barrier is money. Few people are willing to pay out of their own pocket unless it is very inexpensive. As the literature had shown that telehealth is cost-effective, policy makers need to consider how to enhance public awareness of telehealth benefits and evaluate the feasibility of NHI coverage.