New London — Lawrence + Memorial Healthcare and the Yale-New Haven Health System plan to file applications in August with state regulators to affiliate and for L+M’s medical group to become part of Yale-New Haven’s physician practice organization.

Their goal is to file the Certificate of Need applications with the state Office of Healthcare Access by Aug. 24, said Mike O’Farrell, spokesman for L+M. The two published the required legal notices in The Day on Monday announcing their intent.

The two hospitals began affiliation talks in February and announced on July 15 that both their boards of directors had approved filing paperwork with the state for permission to affiliate. The process is expected to take about 18 months and would include public hearings.

In order to affiliate, the L+M Medical Group will have to be absorbed into Yale-New Haven’s larger Northeast Medical Group. Vin Petrini, spokesman for Yale-New Haven, said state law stipulates that a health care system can only have one physician group connected to it. L+M Medical Group includes about 100 physicians and other primary care and specialty providers at offices in New London and other towns in southeastern Connecticut and southwestern Rhode Island. Northeast Medical Group includes about 550 physicians and other primary care and specialty providers. One of those practices is Gales Ferry Pediatrics, which also has an office in Old Saybrook. It is currently the only Northeast Medical Group member in the eastern part of the state, Petrini said.