WASHINGTON, D.C. ? A safeguard designed to ease elderly patients’ transition into the Medicare drug program ended Friday, and that means some people will find they have to pay for their medicine out-of-pocket.

The government had told insurers they must cover a 90-day supply of a drug, even if that drug is not on the plan’s list. Beginning today, they won’t have to.

During the past three months, plans were supposed to be notifying pharmacists and their customers when a prescription was being covered temporarily. However, it’s not clear how often they have done so.

Mark McClellan, the Bush administration’s chief Medicare official, said Friday that insurers must cover a drug until they rule on a customer’s appeal, or until that customer switches to a comparable medicine.