How AI Search Is Recommending Home Health Care: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Visiting Angels remains the coverage leader in home health care, but its hold is loosening materially. The benchmark shows Visiting Angels was recommended in 47.3% of qualified observations in September 2026, down from 59.4% in July 2026 and 57.1% in August 2026. Home Instead follows at 41.8% in September, with the leader gap narrowing from 10.4 points in July to 5.5 points in September.

The category recorded its most active month of the three-month series, with four brands classified as significant decliners. Visiting Angels dropped 12.1 points from July to September, BrightStar Care fell 13.5 points, BAYADA Home Health Care declined 7.9 points, and Amedisys slid 6.1 points. No brand posted significant upward movement, making this a broad-based contraction in recommendation coverage concentrated among the mid-to-upper tier.

Against the prior month, the contraction accelerated. Visiting Angels fell 9.8 points from August to September, Home Instead dropped 9.2 points, Comfort Keepers declined 10.0 points, and BrightStar Care fell 11.6 points. The qualified observation pool grew to 328 in September from 251 in July, meaning these coverage declines occurred even as the benchmark measured more qualifying answers.

Each monthly run begins with 800 prompt-surface observations (610 unique questions in July, 640 in August, 626 in September) across the benchmark's defined AI/search surface universe. Of those, 800 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor in July and September, and 795 in August; 323 were relevant and 477 irrelevant in July, versus 393 relevant and 402 irrelevant in August, and 433 relevant and 367 irrelevant in September. The public metrics use the 251 qualified observations in July, 310 in August, and 328 in September that survive both qualification stages.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

These research-stage counts trace the path from raw collection to the qualified benchmark; the metrics below summarize how coverage and recommendation shares moved across that qualified set.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The August 2026 month showed an intermediate step in this trend, with recommendation-shaped answer share at 51.6% and valid recommendation shortlist share at 62.9%. The September decline continues that path, and the August peak in Comfort Keepers coverage at 48.1% did not hold into September.

AI Recommendation Trend

The home health care category is compressing from the top: the leader held while four brands registered significant coverage declines across the three-month series.

The category-level change came from several movements large enough to exceed normal month-to-month variation. Four brands, Amedisys, BAYADA Home Health Care, BrightStar Care, and Visiting Angels, were classified as significant decliners against the July baseline. The compression at the top came from the combination of Visiting Angels and Home Instead both losing coverage while the remaining brands held closer to their July levels.

What Changed This Month

Visiting Angels: Significant Decline, Leader Gap Narrows

Visiting Angels saw its valid recommendation coverage fall from 59.4% in July to 47.3% in September, a decline of 12.1 points. This is a significant movement against the series threshold, and the prior-to-current month drop of 9.8 points from August to September is also significant.

The decline is steepest in rank-one recommendations. Visiting Angels was the first-choice recommendation in 24.3% of July observations but only 8.5% in September, a drop of 15.8 points. The brand's top-three rate fell 10.4 points from 49.4% to 39.0%, and raw presence declined 7.0 points from 87.2% to 80.2%, though the brand remains the most present across the category.

The distinction to notice is between being visible and being first. Visiting Angels is still the most present brand in the category, and its absolute valid recommendation count rose only modestly, from 149 in July to 155 in September, while the qualified pool grew faster, from 251 to 328 observations, meaning the brand's share of a much larger pool declined even as its raw count held roughly steady.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which competitor is capturing the rank-one recommendations Visiting Angels lost, and across which prompt types did the 15.8-point rank-one decline concentrate?

BrightStar Care: Sharpest Decliner of the Series

BrightStar Care posted the largest coverage decline in the category, falling from 30.3% in July to 16.8% in September, a drop of 13.5 points. The prior-to-current month decline of 11.6 points from August to September is itself significant, making this a two-month downward streak.

The decline is broad-based across the recommendation funnel. Raw presence fell 15.5 points from 42.6% to 27.1%, top-three rate dropped 6.9 points from 15.1% to 8.2%, and the valid recommendation count fell from 76 in July to 55 in September despite the larger qualified pool. The brand's rank-one rate declined 1.0 points, from 2.8% to 1.8%, a comparatively small shift next to the coverage decline.

The distinction to notice is that BrightStar Care lost on presence and recommendation rate simultaneously. This points to fewer opportunities to be recommended rather than a pure ranking problem, and the presence decline is large enough to be the primary driver.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which surfaces or prompt categories drove the 15.5-point presence decline, and which competitors absorbed the recommendations BrightStar Care no longer receives?

Comfort Keepers: Post-August Pullback

Comfort Keepers rose to 48.1% coverage in August, the category's strongest single-month gain in the prior period, but that gain did not hold. Coverage fell to 38.1% in September, a drop of 10.0 points from August that is significant against the prior-to-current threshold.

Against the July baseline, Comfort Keepers is down only 2.5 points from 40.6% to 38.1%, which is not significant. The brand's rank-one rate, however, rose 4.5 points, from 4.0% in July to 8.5% in September, and its raw presence climbed 8.5 points, from 61.0% to 69.5%.

The distinction to notice is the divergence between presence and recommendation. Comfort Keepers is more present and more often the first-choice recommendation, yet its overall coverage is slightly down, driven by the August spike receding rather than a sustained loss.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompt types drove the August peak, and did those prompts shift to a different brand or revert to non-recommendation answer formats in September?

Amedisys and BAYADA: Mid-Tier Contraction

Amedisys and BAYADA Home Health Care both registered significant declines against the July baseline, continuing downward streaks that began in August. Amedisys fell from 8.8% coverage in July to 2.7% in September, a drop of 6.1 points, with valid recommendations falling from 22 to 9. BAYADA declined from 11.6% to 3.7%, a drop of 7.9 points, with valid recommendations falling from 29 to 12.

Both brands also lost raw presence: Amedisys fell 10.0 points, from 20.7% to 10.7%, and BAYADA fell 11.1 points, from 20.3% to 9.2%. Top-three and rank-one rates declined for both brands as well, though those shifts were smaller than the presence and coverage declines.

The distinction to notice is that both brands are losing presence faster than recommendation rates, indicating the contraction is at the mention stage rather than the ranking stage.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which competitor is capturing the presence these two brands lost, and is the decline concentrated in specific geographic or service-type queries?

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

In September 2026, all 328 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. None of the qualified observations fell into Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison. The public benchmark therefore measures which providers AI systems recommend for home health care, but it cannot yet answer commercial questions about price perception, value positioning, or head-to-head comparison outcomes. Those questions require company-level analysis with different prompt designs.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations capturing the query, the AI surface, the recommendation outcome, the rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed. Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This report is part of the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery research program.

• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• Small-count movement: Brands with few qualified observations, such as Addus HomeCare, Honor, Amedisys, and BAYADA Home Health Care, can shift by several points with a handful of recommendation changes. Movement for these brands indicates attention is warranted, not that a trend is established.
• Qualified denominator: All percentages are calculated against the qualified benchmark set (328 observations in September), not the raw collection universe. A brand can lose coverage while its absolute recommendation count holds or rises.
• Directional analysis: Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating. It does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentage sit the questions that matter: which high-intent prompts are won, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes AI systems associate with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. For a brand like Visiting Angels, the audit would identify exactly which prompts and surfaces drove the 15.8-point rank-one decline. For BrightStar Care, it would trace which competitors absorbed the presence and recommendations lost across the two-month streak.

The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps those prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. It turns the benchmark's signal into a diagnostic path.

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