Michael J. Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said that officials are checking to see that both agencies have identical material. They’re also sorting out some legal technicalities and devising an index system so that the two agencies can study the electronic application simultaneously without duplicating efforts or missing anything, Healey said.

Once Lynch and Health Director David R. Gifford accept the application, they have 30 days to decide whether it is complete.

The Health Department will have five staffers plus a lawyer review the application, although they won’t be working on it full-time, Bagnall Degos said. Lynch has expects at least five lawyers, along with several senior paralegals, to review the application.

Lifespan did not have pay an application fee. But Healey said that the work would not incur new costs for taxpayers because the legal staffers do not get paid overtime and will work on the merger application in addition to their other duties. “It’s just something we’ve got to do,” he said.

Lifespan and Care New England announced plans to merge in July, with the “goal” of completing the application within a month or two.

But the process turned out to be more complicated than hospital officials expected. It took until December for the state to draw up the application form. Also, Bruno said, Lifespan originally thought it would need only to file applications for the three Care New England hospitals; instead, the state agencies required complete documentation from each of the seven hospitals, plus the two parent companies -- three times more than expected.

If the application is approved, the new Lifespan will encompass the four hospitals that now comprise Lifespan -- Rhode Island, Miriam, Newport and Bradley -- plus the three Care New England hospitals -- Women & Infants, Butler and Kent. Together the new organization would control about 70 percent of hospital services in the state.