If your health insurance policy begins its fiscal year on January 1 — and 70% of them do — the 2008 benefits package soon to hit your wallet may cause you to say “Ouch!”

“Brace yourself for some sticker shock,” says David Harrell, CEO of OptimizeRx.com, a website for prescription savings. “The combination of higher costs and reduced coverage you’re likely to find the next time you fill a prescription may even make you feel a little sick.”

According to Harrell, in 2008 most employers will pass on more of the financial burden to their employees. Outcome: employees will see higher costs for prescription drugs and larger deductibles.

“Those $5 or $10 co-payments workers are used to shelling out for prescriptions are continuing to vanish for most plan participants,” advises Harrell. Co-payments for brand name drugs (typically $20 to $30 each time you fill a prescription) will be higher in 2008, although generic drug co-payments ($5 to $10) should remain about the same.

Harrell advises those feeling the pinch to take advantage of mail order drug plans, where patients can save as much as 2040% off medications they may be taking on a continuing basis.

Another suggestion is to go online for savings. Launched in January 2007 by a group of physicians and pharmaceutical industry veterans, OptimizeRx offers patients a single, simple website, http://www.optimizerx.com, where consumers can locate, evaluate, and participate in free trial offers, co-pay coupons and other savings programs for the types of medicines they’re taking or may require in the future.

While a variety of programs are available to assist the uninsured, OptimizeRx is the first healthcare industry website to target prescription savings solutions for the majority of Americans who already have traditional private health insurance.

“With health-care benefit costs continuing to move in just one direction, who wouldn't jump at any opportunity to save?” says Harrell. For more information, log on to www.optimizerx.com.