A federal judge told Aetna that it will have to wait until December to make its case in defense of its proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana, rejecting the insurer's request for an earlier trial.

U.S. District Judge John Bates scheduled a two week trial to begin on Dec. 5, meaning he will likely issue a decision on the case in January.

In response to the U.S. Department of Justice's decision last month to seek to block its deal — along with a similar proposed merger between Anthem and Cigna — Aetna asked for a trial as soon as September, saying it needed to happen soon to keep the tentative deal between the two companies from falling through.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.