Is this patient education, or an in-kind kickback?

Drug makers increasingly are keeping nursing staffs on board to help patients better use their medications — but the practice is blurring the line between caregiving and marketing, some critics say. Several whistleblower lawsuits have been filed in the past year against some of the largest biopharma companies — alleging that allowing company-affiliated "nurse educators" to work with patients to ensure they get access to their prescriptions is actually a form of kickback.

“This is marketing laundered through your doctor,” one professor researching drugmaker influence on medicine told STAT.