In the latest episode of CaseyCast®, Lisa Lawson speaks with public health innovator Alex Briscoe about how Medicaid, a program often viewed as a bureaucratic safety net, can become a powerful lever for systemic change, workforce development and youth well-being.
Briscoe, a principal at the Public Works Alliance and former public health director in California, shares how his experiences running a county health system led him to champion new approaches to financing and care delivery. His signature example: EMS Corps, an innovative program that trains young people — many with foster care or juvenile justice system experience — to become emergency medical technicians.
Medicaid: The System Beneath the Systems
Briscoe explains how Medicaid quietly underpins nearly every child-serving system, from special education to foster care to juvenile justice. He argues that real transformation requires understanding how systems are financed and using that understanding to shift power and outcomes.
That philosophy has driven Briscoe’s push to modernize Medicaid’s rules — from expanding who can provide services (like community health workers and doulas) to allowing schools to serve as in-network mental health hubs.
EMS Corps: A Healing Workforce for a Hurting Nation
At the heart of the conversation is EMS Corps, which has trained more than 600 young people to become EMTs through a six-month, stipend-supported program grounded in mentorship, mental health supports and career on-ramps.
The program boasts a more than 90% graduation rate and is expanding to 14 communities across the country. Many graduates go on to become paramedics, firefighters or even physicians.