GREENFIELD — Local health care professionals who work with MassHealth patients are getting their questions answered about a recent change in the state Medicaid program.

After concerns were raised about the recent reforms to MassHealth by leaders in the local health care industry, two directors from Boston came to provide answers.

After hearing MassHealth officials respond to a dozen prepared questions, many of the 30 or so professionals at the John Olver Transit Center meeting room left with their questions answered — ready to go back to the people they serve and try to plug any remaining holes in the system on the ground level.

MassHealth is the state administration that provides the poor and disabled with state and federal money.

Previously, some members of the health community came to the Opioid Task Force to express frustration over the changes and the lack of clarity from the state on how to help their patients navigate the reforms, which are intended to bridge gaps between behavioral and long-term services.

Trying to wrap their heads around MassHealth’s changes, which began March 1, some health care professionals had said their members, particularly those battling addiction, have been challenged at times by these changes.

This led to a couple of follow-up meetings hosted by the Opioid Task Force, including Friday’s with the two directors from the state.

At that meeting was Stephanie Brown, the director of MassHealth’s office of behavioral health, who said the number of issues with the administrative change have continued to go down as the weeks have progressed.

“This entire program is about … putting the member first … a care model that is ultimately much more member-centric, much more regionally focused around the networks and systems and providers who can really wrap the necessary care right time, right place, right intensity for the individual,” she said.

The practice of putting the changes into place is something that may be “bumpy” at first, said Cheryl Pascucci, a Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurse practitioner on the hospital’s Community Hospital Acceleration, Revitalization and Transformation (CHART) team.

Pascucci, who has worked in health care since she was 15 years old, said the patient-centric changes are “really the most hopeful thing I’ve experienced, so I hope you all are also excited.”

You can reach Joshua Solomon at:

jsolomon@recorder.com

413-772-0261, ext. 264