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Shares of CVS Health and Aetna are rising with the companies now saying they expect to close their $69 billion tie-up later this week. The companies say in regulatory filings that they have the final regulatory approval needed and expect to close on or around Wednesday. CVS Health Corp. had told investors earlier this month that it expected to close the deal for the nation's third-largest health insurer before Thanksgiving. But its shares slipped last week after the drugstore chain and pharmacy benefit manager said it still lacked approval from two states. (11/26)

On Monday, the New York State Department of Financial Services announced it would approve the deal after CVS and Aetna Health Insurance Co. of New York agreed to a range of consumer protections and said they would spend $40 million on health insurance education measures. CVS said in a securities filing Monday it may complete the deal on Nov. 28. A CVS spokeswoman confirmed the company now has all state-level permissions for the merger in place. (Maidenberg, 11/26)

Aetna and CVS say that the merger will improve health-care outcomes and reduce costs immediately. They have plans to turn CVS’s 10,000 pharmacies and clinics into community-based sites of care with nurses and other health professionals available to give diagnoses or do lab work. The merger also means that there will no longer be any independent pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S. (Weixel, 11/26)

The deal was cleared by the U.S. Justice Department in October with the condition that Aetna divest its Medicare prescription drug business. On Monday, New York—one of the remaining regulatory holdouts—approved the combination with several conditions, including limits on raising health insurance premiums and a promise to invest in insurance education and enrollment activities. (Livingston, 11/26)