King’s Daughters Medical Center will pay $40.9 million to settle an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice that the Ashland-based hospital submitted false claims to Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid for unnecessary coronary stents and diagnostic catherizations.

In March the medical center told its municipal bondholders that it had set aside $48.9 million for a potential settlement. Of that figure approximately $8 million was to go for legal fees.

In a letter on the hospital’s website this morning, new CEO Kristie Whitlatch announced the settlement agreement, but said it was not an admission of guilt by KDMC.

“Since this investigation began, we have adamantly denied the government’s claims,” she wrote. “We admit to no wrongdoing.”