Our Leadership
James A. Laughman, M.S.W., L.S.W.
President, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Solutions, AmeriHealth Caritas; President, PerformCare
James A. Laughman, M.S.W., L.S.W., is President of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Solutions for AmeriHealth Caritas. Additionally, he is President of PerformCare, the organization’s full-service behavioral health managed care organization. Prior to his current appointment, he served as Executive Director of PerformCare in Pennsylvania. As President of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Solutions, Mr. Laughman leads the team that coordinates care and social services for members with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Mr. Laughman joined AmeriHealth Caritas in 2014. He has devoted the majority of his career to improving the quality of life for people with behavioral, intellectual, or developmental challenges. His experience includes serving as Administrator of Behavioral Health and Developmental Service in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for nearly 10 years.
Other notable achievements include his leadership with the Lancaster County Public Health Partnership and his state appointment as Trustee on the Board for Norristown State Hospital. He has also dedicated many years of service to breaking the cycle of homelessness. As Lead Administrator for the Coalition to End Homelessness in Lancaster County, Mr. Laughman oversaw the successful application for $2.2 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding, and the implementation of that award to provide permanent housing for families most in need.
Through Mr. Laughman’s leadership as County Human Services Administrator, Lancaster County implemented an efficiency program featuring innovative software for human services programs administration that reduced service duplications and increased access to information that helped the county save more than $600,000 and improve response time.
Mr. Laughman continues to work to lower costs and improve care. He encourages state and federal lawmakers to fund efforts to help revitalize neighborhoods and improve social determinants that impact health and wellness, such as housing, neighborhood safety, and health care. He is also a passionate advocate in helping to combat the opioid epidemic.
Lisa A. Hanzel, M.B.A.
Executive Director, PerformCare in Pennsylvania
Lisa Hanzel is Executive Director for PerformCare in Pennsylvania, a national full-service behavioral health managed care organization.
Mrs. Hanzel is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, and leadership of PerformCare in Pennsylvania and directs quality assurance activities. A national behavioral health managed care organization, PerformCare currently operates programs in five states offering specialized behavioral health and human services programs in both the public and private sectors. PerformCare is a full-service managed behavioral health care organization ensuring access to treatment for more than 1 million members in Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial plans. PerformCare supports evidence-based approaches to treatment and intervention to achieve clinical outcomes.
With more than 30 years' experience in health care, Mrs. Hanzel gained extensive expertise working with commercial health insurance and the Medicare program in past roles with Highmark/Pennsylvania Blue Shield. Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas, Mrs. Hanzel held several leadership positions with Highmark. She served as Compliance Auditor and was promoted to Senior Compliance and Integrity Analyst within the Integrity Office of Highmark/Pennsylvania Blue Shield. Most recently, she was the Compliance Director for PerformCare in Pennsylvania accountable for compliance with county, federal, and state Medicaid and Medicare regulatory requirements.
Mrs. Hanzel earned a Master of Business Administration from Mount Saint Mary's College and is a certified compliance and ethics professional (CCEP).
She served as a key volunteer for over 10 years at the Highmark Caring Place, a center for children, adolescents, and their families committed to helping grieving children get the support they need. Mrs. Hanzel has also volunteered for various United Way events during her career.
Mimi Agnew
Director of Information Technology
Mimi has more than 15 years in information technology (IT) and management of information system implementations. She has spent more than nine years working directly in behavioral health, with an emphasis on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance. Her areas of expertise include electronic data interchange (EDI), analysis and implementation of systems as relates to business operations, claims processing, applications, and database operations.
She provides oversight to computer network and hardware infrastructure and security and maintains system uptime of greater than 98 percent for 24 x 7 x 365 operations. In her role, she is responsible for IT budget management and capital expenditures, database administration, application development, data transformation and warehousing, business systems analysis and application support, desktop management and support, LAN\WAN, and telephony.
Tony L. Byler, M.D.
Medical Director
Tony L. Byler is a Medical Director for PerformCare, a full-service managed behavioral health care organization that supports members and providers. For more than two decades, PerformCare has offered care management strategies and partners with the provider network to meet the needs of Pennsylvania adults, children, and families through specialized behavioral health and human services programs. Dr. Byler participates in the development and implementation of utilization management functions and quality improvement functions of PerformCare.
Dr. Byler is a board-certified psychiatrist who began serving with PerformCare in 2019. Before joining PerformCare, he had served as the Medical Director of outpatient and inpatient programs and a multispecialty physician corporation. Dr. Byler has also served as a psychiatrist for the mental health/intellectual disabilities (MH/ID) population at Merakey and as a staff psychiatrist for Wellspan Philhaven Behavioral Healthcare. He addressed the unique behavioral health care needs of the Amish and Mennonite population, and wrote a book that adapted mental health topics to their culture.
Dr. Byler earned a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha, a medical honor society. Following his residency in general psychiatry, he developed a special interest in teaching and mentoring and has served as clinical faculty for a number of medical schools. He has lectured for two family practice residencies, two medical schools, and primary care providers, and at various public meetings. He has also been a full-time faculty member at the Penn State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Byler’s international medical experience includes lecturing to medical students, residents, and other health care workers in Zambia as well as medical students in Burkina Faso. He served as a team leader for the Medical Education International branch of the Christian Medical and Dental Association and co-coordinated a medical conference in Managua, Nicaragua, for MDs and EMTs. He also helped establish ongoing collaboration with U.S. teams to deliver recurrent medical services in Nicaragua.
Leslie P. Marshall, Esq.
Director, Compliance
Leslie P. Marshall is the Director of Compliance for PerformCare. PerformCare is a full-service managed behavioral health care organization that supports members and providers in targeted counties in Pennsylvania. For more than two decades, PerformCare has offered care management strategies and partnered with its provider network to provide quality, specialized behavioral health care and human services programs to meet the needs of Pennsylvania adults, children, and families.
Ms. Marshall is responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership for the development and implementation of compliance policy, process, and control activities and provides oversight of all operating division and subsidiary compliance, privacy, and regulatory functions.
As the PerformCare Compliance Director, Ms. Marshall is responsible for the oversight and development of all local plan compliance measures. Specifically, Ms. Marshall proactively monitors departmental activities for compliance gaps or weaknesses and then assists in identifying opportunities for improvement. She actively partners with local and corporate stakeholders to support the plan's compliance needs through the creation and coordination of training initiatives. Ms. Marshall is also responsible for assisting with the review of member and provider complaints.
Prior to joining PerformCare, Ms. Marshall served as Director of Compliance at PA Health & Wellness. There she was responsible for coordination of health plan compliance and monitoring activities with state regulatory entities to ensure timely responses to requests to manage risk. As the primary point of contact for state regulatory agencies, she was responsible for maintaining a good working relationship with the state monitoring team. Her responsibilities also included documenting and inventorying risks, sanctions, and corrective action plans received by the plan and ensuring adequate reporting and mitigation strategies were in place and monitored.
Ms. Marshall currently serves on the East Pennsboro School District board of directors. She also volunteers with Junior Achievement, an organization dedicated to helping students learn about business principles and economics to help them become future leaders. In recent years, Ms. Marshall has helped raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Central Pennsylvania by participating in the Hershey Half Marathon.
Ms. Marshall graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and earned a law degree from the Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Francis Pandolfino
Director of Finance
Francis Pandolfino is Director of Finance for PerformCare in Pennsylvania, a national full-service behavioral health managed care organization that supports members and providers. PerformCare ensures access to treatment and offers specialized behavioral health and human services programs in both the public and private sectors.
He is responsible for the oversight of all financial activities for PerformCare of Pennsylvania. As Director of Finance, he is a critical member of the management team and provides financial oversight to ensure fiduciary and contract compliance with PerformCare's clients. Mr. Pandolfino manages both the financial and analytic teams within the company. Through his management, both teams provide accurate and timely reporting of financial and member-driven medical cost trends to executive management and PerformCare partners. The departments also provide key financial data from operational activities, which drive company decisions.
Mr. Pandolfino is responsible for leading the annual operating budget plans and monitors performance of ongoing costs driven by the operational staff. He maintains and reviews operating revenue models for new business and strategic planning needs and manages the daily activities of the finance administration staff.
Prior to joining PerformCare, Mr. Pandolfino served as controller and operations manager of Liberty Financial Group Inc. in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. There he was responsible for providing oversight, leverage testing, and forecasting of short- and long-term performance of a $16 million in-house portfolio. He had oversight of daily cash operations for the company and portfolio account results.
Acting as the liaison between the company and five lending institutions, Mr. Pandolfino was tasked with the responsibility to either broker contracts or maintain customers in portfolio in order to meet financial targets and mitigate risk. While serving as controller, he accomplished many achievements, including ending the fiscal year in 2015 1.5% above target margin while surpassing target portfolio balances.
Mr. Pandolfino also has previous finance experience in health care, at Keystone Peer Review Organization Inc. (KePRO Inc.) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. KePRO Inc. is a Pennsylvania medical utilization peer review company with locations in six states and Puerto Rico. As Controller for KePRO, he drafted financial policy, conducted legal contract review, produced analytic and financial forecasting reports, and created product pricing models for new health services. His achievements included successfully restructuring and streamlining the Finance department and redesigning the company-wide financial reporting format that resulted in an improved analytic focus.
Mr. Pandolfino earned a Bachelor of Science degree from York College of Pennsylvania, where he majored in business, accounting, and finance.