Supervisors on Monday will discuss whether to a reduce a line of credit for Kern Medical Center to $40 million, after the balance of that account was paid down to $8.1 million last month.

Elsa Martinez is the county’s budget and finance chief deputy administrative officer and says the loan comes from the county, and its cap is currently $70 million.

“The county general fund provides cash flow to Kern Medical Center for day-to-day operations while they wait for collections either from patient revenue or governmental receivables,” she said.

The balance was at about $48 million in April. Indigent care and intergovernmental over-payments may cause the balance to increase again, however.

– Anthony Pollreisz