Sunwave and Lightning Step alternative for outpatient programs

One company, two platforms: the merger in dates

Many programs searching for a "Lightning Step alternative" or a "Sunwave alternative" are really asking one question: what happens to our system now that the two companies are one? Here is what the companies have said publicly.

Date	What happened	Source
March 2024	Lightning Step launches LIA, its AI tool for drafting progress notes	Lightning Step release
October 27, 2025	Sunwave Health and Lightning Step announce a merger, with a growth investment from BVP Forge	Merger release
January 12, 2026	Both companies announce a SOC 2 Type II attestation; the release says existing customers face no forced migrations	SOC 2 release
June 4, 2026	The two brands become one name, Sunwave, with the stated aim of one AI-native platform for EMR, CRM and RCM; customers stay supported on the technology they use today	Unified brand release

Read plainly: as of October 2026 the company says it supports both legacy platforms and isn't forcing anyone to move, while its stated direction is a single platform. Neither statement is a reason to leave. They are a reason to ask, in writing, what your system looks like over the length of the contract you're about to sign. The questions below are the ones we'd ask.

What Sunwave is built for

Sunwave sells to the whole treatment continuum. Its site has a page for each kind of program: detox and withdrawal management, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, medication-assisted treatment, adolescent programs and eating disorder centers. Across those pages:

• EMR. Sunwave's EMR page covers assessments, treatment plans and progress notes, with its AI tool (SIA) drafting individual and group notes. Its pages describe medication orders, MAT and controlled-substance workflows, and an e-prescribing article describes EPCS workflows.
• CRM. Admissions from first call through pre-admission, with bed availability and a bed board, which matters if you fill beds.
• RCM. Claims, eligibility, remittances, patient payments and utilization review management in the same system.
• Lightning Step, the legacy platform, describes the same three parts on its EMR, CRM and RCM pages, with e-prescribing through a DoseSpot integration and built-in telehealth launched from the calendar.

Where Sunwave is plainly stronger than Cima: anything with beds or medication passes, admissions pipelines with a bed board, e-prescribing that is live today, built-in video, and organizations large enough to need many sites on one platform. The merger release says the combined company serves more than 3,000 facilities; that's the company's figure, not ours.

Sunwave vs Cima, criterion by criterion

Sunwave column: the Sunwave and Lightning Step pages linked above, read in October 2026. "Ask Sunwave" means we didn't find it on a public page, not that it's missing; program EHRs often show these things in a demo. The rows follow our vendor-neutral IOP and PHP EHR buyer's checklist, and the four-vendor IOP EHR comparison has the same rows for Kipu, SimplePractice and TherapyNotes.

Criterion	Sunwave (incl. Lightning Step)	Cima EHR (Program plan)
Levels of care	Detox, residential, PHP, IOP, MAT, outpatient, adolescent and eating disorder programs	PHP, IOP and OP only, each with its own day and week hours and per diem code; step-down on the same chart
Admissions	CRM with bed board and pre-admission	No CRM. Eligibility checks on the chart; our separate Quick VOB verifies benefits for admissions next to any EHR
Group notes	AI drafts group and individual notes; ask to see one group with each client's own entry	Topic and summary once, each client's own entry tied to a plan goal, one PIN signs all; entries 80% alike are stopped
Attendance and per diem	PHP page describes group schedules, attendance and billable services together; ask how a short day is handled	Hours come from signed notes; one per diem charge per day that meets its hours; short days flagged, not billed
Claims and RCM	Claims, eligibility, remittances, patient payments in its RCM; ask which claim forms	837P, or 837I with your revenue code per level and type of bill; claims, ERAs and eligibility at 30¢, 20¢ and 30¢
Utilization review	UR management listed in RCM	Authorizations on the chart; continued-stay review on Today 5 days before the last authorized day, ASAM dimensions 1 to 6 required
Medications	Orders, MAT, controlled substances; e-prescribing (DoseSpot on Lightning Step)	Medication list, allergies and single doses given in the office; no scheduled med pass; e-prescribing not live yet
Labs	A Lightning Step blog post describes lab orders and results in the system; ask which labs connect on your platform	Quest and Labcorp orders built, not live yet
Video	Built-in telehealth (Lightning Step); IOP page lists telehealth tools	Not built in; add your own HIPAA-ready link
AI notes	SIA (Sunwave) and LIA (Lightning Step)	Type or dictate a few lines; AI drafts the sections from only what you typed, on AWS under a BAA; owner turns it on; included
Price	Not published; quoted on request	$399 a month for up to 25 clients, $39 per added clinician, no setup fee
Data you bring in	Its terms list a fixed set of imports (client demographics, facilities, services, payers, users), imported as submitted; more by statement of work	Client list from any CSV, previewed before saving; up to 3,000 clients a file; duplicates skipped
Term and leaving	Set in your agreement; ask for export terms in writing	Month to month; full export any time; readable at least 90 days after cancelling

Price sources: Sunwave doesn't list prices on its site; Software Advice's Sunwave EMR profile says pricing is available on request. Cima prices are on cimaehr.com/pricing.

On Lightning Step or Sunwave today? Questions before you renew

If you're happy with your system, a merger doesn't change that. But a renewal after a merger is the moment you have the most leverage and the least information. Send these questions in writing before you sign another term, and keep the answers with the contract:

1. "Which platform will we be on for the full term, and will we be asked to migrate during it?" The company says customers stay on the technology they use today. Ask that it be written into your order form, along with who pays for a migration if one comes.
2. "If we migrate, what moves?" Sunwave's terms of service describe migration into Sunwave as a fixed set of imports (client demographics, facilities, services, insurance payers and users), imported exactly as submitted, with more work under a statement of work at extra cost. Ask whether a Lightning Step-to-Sunwave move would follow the same terms.
3. "What does our export look like when we leave?" Ask for a sample: file formats, signed notes as PDFs, attachments, claims and payments, audit history, and how long you can still read records after the end date. You must keep records for years after you change vendors; in Texas, see how long to keep records.
4. "What's the yearly increase cap, and does the term auto-renew?" Ask for the increase as a percentage and the notice window to cancel.
5. "Which of our modules are in the base price?" E-prescribing, labs, telehealth, AI notes and RCM services are priced differently by different vendors; ask for every line as one monthly number at your census. Our EHR cost worksheet lays it out.
6. "Show us a Part 2 disclosure." For an SUD program, ask to see a release under a 42 CFR 2.31 consent with the required notice attached, on the platform you'll be on. Our Part 2 guide explains the 2024 rule.

Have your attorney read anything multi-year. Cima isn't a law firm, and your signed order form controls over any web page, ours included.

Who each fits

If you run…	Lean toward	Why
Detox or residential, with or without outpatient	Sunwave or another full-continuum EHR	You need beds, medication workflows and residential levels. Cima has none of them.
MAT with prescribing on site today	Sunwave	Its pages describe MAT and controlled-substance workflows; Cima's e-prescribing isn't live yet.
Several sites with an admissions team	Sunwave, or a vendor sized for it	A CRM, bed board and multi-site reporting are its home ground. Cima's Program plan covers up to 25 clients in the program.
One PHP/IOP/OP site, up to 25 in the program	Cima, after you've scored both	Groups, hours, per diem claims and UR at a published price, month to month, without residential features you won't use.
An outpatient program on Lightning Step, renewal coming	Get the written answers above, then compare	Price the renewal and a switch side by side. Staying can be the right answer.
A new outpatient program, not open yet	Cima, or either after a demo	Low fixed cost while census ramps; Cima Consulting's IOP / PHP Program Launch includes six months of Cima EHR.

What Cima costs, as one example rather than an average: a program with four clinicians, about 20 clients and 300 per diem and session claims a month is the $399 Program plan, three added clinicians at $39 each and 300 claims with ERAs: $666.00 a month, with AI drafting included and billing and front-desk logins free. Ask Sunwave to quote the same month. The Cima price list shows every line, and Cima for IOP and PHP shows the program day.

What Cima doesn't do

If one of these is a must-have, Cima isn't your EHR today:

• No detox, residential or recovery-housing levels; no bed board or admissions CRM.
• No scheduled medication pass (eMAR); single doses given in the office are recorded.
• E-prescribing and lab orders aren't live yet.
• No built-in video.
• The Columbia suicide screen (C-SSRS) isn't built in; PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are, with an immediate alert on the self-harm question.
• Over 25 clients in the program, talk to us first.

If you move: what comes over and how

A program cutover takes about two weeks of calendar time, most of it waiting on payers. The full plan is in switching EHRs; the program-specific steps:

1. Read your agreement's end date and notice period, and request your full export in writing before you give notice.
2. Export the client list as a CSV (name, date of birth, contact, insurance, member ID, diagnoses) and import it into Cima. The preview lists any row that needs fixing before anything is saved.
3. Set up the Program settings: each level's day and week hours and per diem code, your claim form (837P, or 837I with revenue codes and type of bill), groups and facilitators. The IOP and PHP billing codes guide has the codes.
4. For each current client, enter the level of care, the open authorization with its last covered day, and the current treatment plan, and upload the latest plan, intake and releases from the old system to the chart's Files tab.
5. Enroll for ERAs with each payer (1 to 3 weeks each), and run an eligibility check on every insured client.
6. Cut over on a Monday. From that day, groups and per diem days are documented and billed in Cima. Work older claims to payment in the old system, and keep its export for your retention period.

What doesn't move: past notes, past appointments and open claims. They stay in your old system's export, which is why getting that export complete, and readable, matters more than anything else in a switch.

Questions

Are Lightning Step and Sunwave the same company now?

Yes. The two announced a merger on October 27, 2025, and on June 4, 2026 brought both brands under the single name Sunwave. The company says customers continue to be supported on the technology they use today.

Do Lightning Step customers have to migrate to Sunwave?

Not as of October 2026, by the company's own statements: a January 2026 release says existing customers face no forced migrations. Its stated direction is one platform for EMR, CRM and RCM, so ask what your contract says about migration during your term, and who pays for it.

How much does Sunwave cost?

Sunwave doesn't publish prices; it quotes on request. Ask for every line at your census as one monthly number: users or clients, modules, e-prescribing, labs, telehealth, RCM services, setup and the yearly increase cap.

Is Cima cheaper than Sunwave for an IOP?

Cima's Program plan is $399 a month for up to 25 clients plus $39 per added clinician, month to month. Whether that is cheaper depends on your Sunwave quote, and on whether you need residential, MAT prescribing or admissions features Cima doesn't have.

Does Cima work for detox or residential?

No. Cima's levels of care are PHP, IOP and outpatient, with no bed board or medication pass. If you run beds, choose a full-continuum EHR.

Does Quick VOB work with Sunwave or Lightning Step?

Yes. Quick VOB stands alone next to any EHR: verify benefits from a card photo and attach the PDF to the chart.

Sources

1. Business Wire: Sunwave Health and Lightning Step Merge (October 27, 2025); SOC 2 Type II attestation (January 12, 2026); Sunwave Announces Unified Brand (June 4, 2026); Lightning Step Launches LIA (March 11, 2024).
2. Sunwave: home; Behavioral Health EMR; PHP; IOP; Detox; Residential; MAT; Adolescent; e-prescribing integrations; Terms of Service. Read October 2026.
3. Lightning Step: EMR; CRM; RCM; DoseSpot integration; labs. Read October 2026.
4. Software Advice, Sunwave EMR profile (pricing on request). Read October 2026.
5. eCFR, 42 CFR 2.31, consent requirements.
6. Cima EHR: Program plan settings, group notes, attendance, claims, UR, import and export (alturaops server/solo), and the prices on cimaehr.com/pricing.

Sunwave and Lightning Step are trademarks of their owner, named here only to compare published facts. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it. More one-to-one comparisons: Kipu, Alleva and BestNotes.