MOKENA — It's now up to a state regulatory panel to decide whether Provena Health and Resurrection Health Care can pursue their decision to merge.

Both Catholic health care systems have been exploring a potential merger deal for months and have reached an agreement, they said Tuesday.

An application has been filed with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, and Resurrection Health spokesman Brian Crawford said the two health systems hope to have board approval for the merger by the end of the year.

If approved, the merger will create the largest Catholic health care system in Illinois, Crawford said.

"We're going to have a fully integrated, statewide Catholic health care system for the first time in Illinois," he said.

Together, Mokena-based Provena and Chicago-based Resurrection operate 12 hospitals — among them two Provena hospitals in Urbana and Danville.

They also have 28 long-term care and senior residential facilities, more than 50 primary and specialty-care clinics and six home health agencies.

Their service area is primarily in Aurora, Chicago, Danville, Des Plaines, Elgin, Joliet, Kankakee, Rockford, Champaign-Urbana and Avilla, Ind.

Crawford said there aren't any plans for facility closures.

"We are in growth mode," he said.

Provena CEO Guy Wiebking said the more the two systems talked about the merger, "the more we realized that through collaboration and equal partnership, we take a major step toward achieving a long-common goal of ensuring for the future access to a vibrant Catholic health system which will enhance our abilities to meet the needs of the communities we are privileged to serve."

Along with forming the single-largest Catholic health care system, Provena and Resurrection executives say their two systems will also together form one of the state's largest integrated health systems with $2.6 billion in operating revenues, 22,000 employees and 5,000 physicians.

"There's no question that in a challenging health care environment, there's strength in numbers," Provena spokeswoman Lisa Lagger said. "But key for us is not losing sight of providing that care with passion, dignity and respect."

The two systems spent a total $112 million in facility and technology enhancements last year, but it's too soon to say what facilities might be in line for future improvements after the merger, Crawford said.

The next milestone would be selecting the new CEO and bringing the management teams together, he said.