Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana pushed back the deadline for their $37 billion acquisition agreement to Feb. 15.
"Aetna and Humana each agreed, in order to extend the 'End Date' to waive until 11:59 p.m. on February 15, 2017, its right to terminate the merger agreement due to a failure of the mergers to have been completed on or before December 31, 2016," a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reads.
This is the second time the insurers extended their agreement deadline, the first being from June 30 to Dec. 31.
The decision arrived as the insurers' antitrust trial closed in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. DOJ and the insurers' attorneys will return to court Dec. 30 to make a final, 90-minute argument to overseeing U.S. District Court Judge John Bates.