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Lawmakers who hoped to address price transparency and lower drug costs are instead negotiating a smaller health care package after talks broke down again amid a broader stalemate over government funding. (Clason, 2/26)

Congress has abandoned its attempt to reform how pharmacy middlemen operate in an upcoming package to fund the federal government, 11 lobbyists and sources following the talks told STAT. (Cohrs and Wilkerson, 2/26)

Congress will not move forward with a controversial policy to equalize certain Medicare payments to hospitals and physicians’ offices in an upcoming government funding package, five lobbyists and sources following the talks told STAT. (Cohrs, 2/26)

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Congress has until Friday to reach a spending agreement, or the nation will face a partial government shutdown. It's the fourth such deadline lawmakers have approached in recent months. The last three times, they opted for short-term deals, pushing off more permanent solutions after failing to reach a funding compromise. ... With only five days to go until a partial shutdown, leaders have still not released bills to fund agriculture, food and drug, energy and water, military construction, veterans affairs, transportation and housing programs. (Beggin, 2/26)

Millions of U.S. veterans will be eligible beginning March 5 for health care with the Department of Veterans Affairs under an accelerated effort to provide benefits and services to those exposed to toxic substances while serving. The VA announced Monday that all veterans who have served in a combat zone since the Vietnam War, as well as those who participated in training or operations and came into contact with hazardous materials, will be able to enroll in VA health care. (Kime, 2/26)

The Defense Department on Monday released a long-awaited review of senior officials’ handling of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent hospitalizations, finding that there was “no attempt to obfuscate” his cancer diagnosis and medical treatment, even though the Pentagon initially withheld it from the White House and public. An unclassified summary of the review did not identify any failures by Austin or his aides as they oversaw the transfer of top-level authority from Austin to his deputy several times while he was undergoing medical treatment in December and January. But the probe, which was conducted by a senior Pentagon official, said that Austin’s staff was constrained by medical privacy laws and their own concern about their boss’s privacy. (Ryan, 2/26)