12 pages. Excerpt: To better understand ... complex cost-sharing arrangements, the human resources consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide was asked to describe how actuarial value can be used to evaluate health plans. Actuarial value is a summary measure of likely payments by a plan. It measures the percentage of medical expenses paid by a health plan for a standard population, ranging from 0.00 for a plan that pays nothing to 1.00 for a plan that pays all medical expenses. This paper describes Watson Wyatt's analytic approach, presents the strengths and limitations of actuarial value as a summary measure, and offers observations about the use of actuarial value to assess diverse health plans.  MORE >>