Revenue Cycle Management: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

athenahealth remains the coverage leader at 38.7% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, holding an 8.3 percentage point lead over second-place R1 RCM at 30.4%. athenahealth's position is essentially stable: its July 2026 reading of 41.8% and its September 2026 reading of 38.7% fall within normal month-to-month variation for the brand, and it has led the category in every measured month of the series.

Waystar recorded the largest coverage increase among continuously tracked brands, rising to 24.5% in September 2026 from 15.1% in July 2026, a gain of 9.4 points that built in each month of the series, including a significant 6.3-point move from 18.2% in August 2026. R1 RCM posted the largest single-month move of the series, jumping to 30.4% in September 2026 from a flat 22.5% reading held across July and August 2026. TruBridge posted the largest coverage decline among continuously tracked brands, falling to 1.1% in September 2026 from 3.8% in July 2026, a drop that continued in each month of the series.

The tracked brand set also changed in September 2026: Optum entered the standings at 24.3% coverage while Optum Workers' Comp And Auto No-fault exited with no qualified observations, a naming shift in the public benchmark rather than an independent market movement. AGS Health and GeBBS Healthcare also rose beyond normal variation since July 2026, reaching 8.8% and 13.9% respectively.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both months. August 2026 sat between these points with 462 qualified observations and a 48.1% valid recommendation shortlist share.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Revenue Cycle Management

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The following table shows how the September 2026 qualification funnel narrowed from raw observations to the public denominator.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

This table shows the primary current-month benchmark view for September 2026, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned in any capacity, whether recommended, compared, or discussed.
• Valid recommendation coverage: The share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist. This is the primary benchmark metric.
• Top-three rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the first three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand is the single first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: The balance of positive over negative mentions, on a scale where 1.0 is entirely positive.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

The following table shows valid recommendation coverage from baseline to current for each tracked brand.

The tracked brand set changed in September 2026: Optum entered the standings at 24.3%, while Optum Workers' Comp And Auto No-fault exited with no qualified observations. These two changes reflect a naming shift in the public benchmark rather than independent movements, and neither should be read against the other brands' organic gains or losses.

Largest Increase Among Continuously Tracked Brands: Waystar

Waystar gained in each month of the series, rising to 24.5% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 15.1% in July 2026, an increase of 9.4 points. The brand added 6.3 points in September 2026 alone, moving up from 18.2% in August 2026, a significant prior-to-current move. Presence rose from 24.3% in July 2026 to 41.9% in September 2026, and top-three rate moved from 8.2% to 12.8% over the same period.

Largest Single-Month Move: R1 RCM

R1 RCM rose to 30.4% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 22.5% in July 2026, a cumulative gain of 7.9 points. The increase came entirely in September 2026, when coverage moved up from a flat 22.5% reading held in both July and August 2026. The brand's presence rate also climbed, from 33.3% in July 2026 to 49.6% in September 2026, and its rank-one rate rose to 14.1% in September 2026 from 6.8% in July 2026, both beyond normal variation.

New Entrant: Optum

Optum entered the tracked set in September 2026 with 24.3% valid recommendation coverage, a 47.5% presence rate, a 16.0% top-three rate, and a 5.6% rank-one rate. This is the brand's first measurement in the series and coincides with the exit of Optum Workers' Comp And Auto No-fault. Optum and Waystar now sit within 0.2 points of each other on coverage.

Largest Decline: TruBridge

TruBridge declined in each of the two months since July 2026, falling to 1.1% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 3.8% in July 2026, a drop of 2.7 points. The brand's top-three rate fell to 0.5% in September 2026 from 2.0% in July 2026, while net sentiment moved to 0.2 from 0.7.

Exit: Optum Workers’ Comp And Auto No-fault

Optum Workers' Comp And Auto No-fault had no qualified observations in September 2026, down from 5.2% valid recommendation coverage in both July 2026 and August 2026. The brand is not present in the September 2026 standings, and this exit coincides with the entry of Optum into the tracked set the same month.

Steady performers this month included athenahealth, Conifer Health Solutions, Ensemble Health Partners, and Experian Health, none of which moved beyond normal variation on the primary coverage metric.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement within the top three and at rank one varied meaningfully in September 2026.

Similar coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates. R1 RCM and Waystar sat 5.9 points apart on coverage in September 2026, yet R1 RCM's rank-one rate of 14.1% was more than double Waystar's 6.7%. athenahealth led the category on coverage while converting a lower share of its recommendations into first position than R1 RCM did.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which is the discovery and consideration stage of the buyer journey.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes. Price, value, and head-to-head comparison have no public signal in this data. August 2026 also held 462 qualified observations entirely in the Brand Recommendation class.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or revenue attribution
• Whether an AI recommendation led to a purchase or contract
• Every possible AI response to a given question
• Organic search engine ranking
• Social media mention volume
• Private, gated, or sponsored AI channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

The small September 2026 qualified count of 375 limits what can be concluded from single-month movements.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable industry benchmark that measures how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across major AI and search surfaces. Each monthly measurement adds to an evergreen public report for the vertical. For full detail on how the benchmark is built:

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper, examining how one organization appears across prompts, surfaces, and buyer moments.

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

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