A message from the LifeHealth founders, Margot Adam Langstaff and Elisa Hamill
A clinician and a leader, Margot Langstaff is also a Harvard-educated, successful entrepreneur and an Army veteran. Margot is a managing partner and co-founder at LifeHealth. She utilizes her clinical and business acumen, along with a measure of corporate vision, to lead the organization into the future. Margot formalized the organization’s business model and successfully implemented certifications as a woman-owned small business, veteran-owned, and an 8(a) business.
She has spent her 35-year career in multiple areas of the health care system including serving in the military health care system as a medic in the U.S. Army and as the clinical manager of Yale New Haven’s Hospital Surgical Trauma Unit. She went on to manage and staff the first modern operating room/outpatient clinic in Haiti. Building on her business experience, she transitioned into sales and marketing of pharmaceuticals at Schering Plough and then went on to the clinical and business management of implantable medical devices at GoreTex® and Medtronic.
Margot is an M.B.A. graduate of Harvard Business School, and received a B.S.N. from the University of Connecticut. As a US Army veteran, she earned the distinction as the youngest enlistee to manage the organization’s largest outpatient clinic on the East Coast.
As managing partner and co-founder of LifeHealth, Elisa Hamill utilizes her expertise to manage operations at the organization. She ensures the quality and integrity of LifeHealth’s commercial and government programs.
Her career includes executive positions for national and regional companies throughout the health care industry. At CNA Corporation, she served as an industry expert in the Military Health System’s procurement for $6.4 billion in administrative services and $19.5 billion in health care for more than 8 million military beneficiaries and their families. She received a commendation from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for this work.
During her tenure as CEO of the Colorado Healthcare Purchasing Alliance, Elisa increased membership tenfold—from 120 to 1,200 employers—and catapulted the company into a profitable status. She went on to join WellPoint Health Networks/UNICARE as vice president, where she oversaw the operations for self-insured national associations. Elisa served BlueCross BlueShield Colorado/Nevada/New Mexico as senior vice president of operations and vice president of government programs, overseeing leadership and operations for the regional company and its subsidiaries. She also served BlueCross BlueShield New Mexico as vice president, leading the growth of governmental programs from one state to 20 states.
Elisa’s 35-plus-year record of extraordinary service in health and wellness is punctuated by recognition for service and innovation, including a national award for creating a new insurance program for small employers. Elisa is co-founder of the CMEH Foundation, which provides primary care for patients in rural Cambodia and as well as financial support for Cambodian students studying in the medical field.
She holds a B.S. from the University of New Hampshire, an M.S. in Environmental Medicine from New York University, and an M.S.N. from Pace University.
We both started out as clinical nurses but offers too good to pass up tracked us to the business side of health care.
One thing we both learned during all those years in business was that the preventive side of healthcare was either undervalued or missing entirely.
Our paths crossed when we both served on the Steering Committee of the University of Colorado’s Women’s Health Center. Prevention was part of the Center’s mission, and naturally like-minded, we decided that there had to be a better business solution to preventive care. We also decided that the solution needed more than early warning. It also needed to be accessible and include patient education.
So, in 2004 we founded LifeHealth. The company was self-funded and had a staff of two – us.
LifeHealth was the very definition of “entrepreneurial”. We started with bone density screenings, added finger-stick blood work, then flu shots – and kept growing from there. Our business customers were excited and wanted more, so as time went on, we added more clinical preventive services.
All of these services were provided, soup to nuts, by the two of us. We booked and ran the events and did all the health education. During that time, we packed a lot of boxes, hauled tons of supplies in our personal cars, and set-up each and every clinic. Despite the work involved we had to respond to every growth opportunity. And self-financed, we had to personally take the financial risk of making mistakes. Hours were long, and either fabulous success or dismal failure seemed always to be just around the corner.
Over the past 18 years, then, LifeHealth has come a long way. Fulfilling our dream of accessible, comprehensive healthcare support services, we now employ full time and part-time clinicians and providers of multiple medical, dental, and behavioral healthcare specialties nationwide.
As such, we strictly adhere to our Corporate Vision & Mission:
Be a leader in healthcare by providing the highest quality clinical and non-clinical support services and solutions.
LifeHealth strives to provide our customers high-quality, value-added solutions that meet their business requirements. We do so by being flexible, innovative and responsive.
We conduct our company ethically with demonstrated corporate leadership. We are characterized by fair treatment, teamwork, open communications, staff accountability, and career opportunities for personnel growth and development.
Among our customers are major nationwide insurance carriers, Fortune 500 commercial employers, Department of Defense, Civilian government agencies, and state National Guards. As a veteran-owned business, we are proud to deliver highly specialized clinical solutions to all branches of our military.
Despite growth, our corporate culture remains entrepreneurial and collaborative, both internally and externally. We treat customers as partners in finding the right solutions for their unique business requirements, and we’re always willing to take risks on new services and customized delivery strategies for each of our clients.
Similar to other small businesses, LifeHealth has weathered the ups and downs of the business cycle and the recent challenges of COVID-19. But our dream of a consumer friendly, preventive healthcare business has been realized far beyond our original expectations.
LifeHealth will continue to grow, to uncover new opportunities, and to expand its services. But on a more personal note, we know that LifeHealth has contributed to the reality of preventive health care for many more Americans. And we take considerable pride in that.
