Groton — Despite the moratorium on hospital mergers imposed Feb. 25 by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lawrence + Memorial Healthcare and the Yale-New Haven Health System have continued to submit documents to regulators who will decide on the proposed affiliation and expect their joint application to be deemed complete “within the next week or so.”

Marna Borgstrom, president and chief executive officer of Yale-New Haven, gave the update on the application with the state Office of Health Care Access during a meeting at The Mystic Marriott on Thursday. The meeting was attended by about 50 community leaders and hospital officials from L+M and The Westerly Hospital, which is part of the L+M system, and followed similar meetings that day with staff at both institutions.

“The L+M affiliation is like completing a big piece of the puzzle for us,” said Borgstrom.

The Yale-New Haven system extended along the shoreline to Greenwich and Bridgeport Hospitals in the 1990s, and acquired the Hospital of Saint Raphael three years ago. Twenty-five of the state's 28 hospitals are already part of larger hospital networks.

L+M and Yale-New Haven announced plans to pursue the affiliation last July and submitted initial paperwork with regulators in October. Two months ago, Malloy issued an executive order suspending all new hospital affiliations while a task force prepares recommendations to reform the process. The task force report is scheduled to be completed in January 2017, meaning no decisions on pending applications will be made until then. Bruce Cummings, president and chief executive officer of L+M, said the closing on the affiliation could be completed 60 days after the regulators’ decision.

“Right now we’re in a holding pattern,” he said, adding that the boards of the two institutions have entered into a “marriage contract” that commits them to continue pursuing the affiliation despite the setback of the executive order.

While the regulators’ decision is on hold, Borgstrom said, the two health care systems will seek to add to clinical partnerships and programs. Even before the affiliation plans were announced, L+M and Yale-New Haven had partnerships in seven clinical areas.

“We will continue to advance our relationship, even if we have to wait this out,” she said.

Bill Jennings, president of Bridgeport Hospital, told the group that the affiliation with Yale-New Haven has enabled his hospital to fill “clinical voids” such as in gynecological oncology and to make capital improvements, while maintaining a local governance structure.

“The management team of Bridgeport hospital is very local, but it’s integrated with Yale-New Haven,” he said.

Borgstrom said the affiliation would enable both L+M and Yale-New Haven to cut costs on legal and human resources services and other administrative areas without affecting patient care. Hospitals statewide are experiencing increasing financial pressures from reduced Medicaid and private insurance reimbursements as well as state taxes and changes in the way health care is being delivered and compensated.

“You can whine and complain or you can transform the way you do business,” she said.

She said Yale-New Haven has been able to trim $200 million out of the Hospital of Saint Raphael’s budget since the purchase three years ago, and has also invested in upgrades to the hospital’s buildings, added clinical programs and avoided layoffs. Rates charged to Saint Raphael patients did not increase after the acquisition, she said, and the same would be true for rates at L+M.

“The financials for this (acquisition) have not been built on a pricing change,” she said.

While Borgstrom said an estimate of the savings L+M and Yale-New Haven would see after an affiliation could not be provided while the application is pending, Jennings offered figures from Bridgeport Hospital to illustrate the potential benefits.

“We’ve estimated the $10 million to $15 million per year in cost savings or cost avoidance” by being part of the larger hospital network, he said. Bridgeport Hospital's annual budget is about $467 million.

During a question-and-answer period, Bill Turner of Stonington, an L+M corporator and realtor, asked how the local community could support the affiliation.

“How could we help you move this along?” he asked.

Borgstrom and Vincent Petrini, senior vice president of public affairs for Yale-New Haven, urged audience members to contact state legislators and advocate for approval of the affiliation.

“We need to keep hammering this message home that this is important, not just for New London and Westerly but for the entire state of Connecticut,” he said.

Cummings said the two health systems will continue to provide updates to the community, and invited people to email him questions at: bcummings@lmhosp.org.

j.benson@theday.com