In a landmark case, King's Daughters Medical Center (KDMC) in Ashland, Kentucky, agreed to pay the federal government $40.9 million for falsely billing healthcare programs for unnecessary heart surgeries, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice. Between 2006 and 2011, KDMC billed numerous unnecessary coronary stents and diagnostic catheterizations performed by hospital doctors, according to the department. Those doctors then falsified medical records to justify the procedures, which generated millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements for KDMC, the government alleged. "Hospitals that place their financial interests above the well-being of their patients will be held accountable," Stuart F. Delery, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil division, said in the announcement. "The Department of Justice will not tolerate those who abuse federal healthcare programs and put the beneficiaries of these programs at risk by providing medically unnecessary care." Announcement