A national coalition of health care assistants spoke out today about the threat of dropped funding for Medicare nursing homes.

Groups representing the State of Kansas urged congress to end its consideration of major Medicare funding reductions for skilled nursing facilities.

Lisa Cantrell with the coalition to protect senior care says Kansas' facilities could potentially face a $2 million cut to Medicare over the next five years; something she says would jeopardize the quality of care for our senior citizens across the nation. “If this does happen it will mean that quality improvement programs in nursing homes will be in jeopardy and it would really particularly hit the rural nursing homes hard and the small communities,” she says.

Cantrell also went on to say the loss in funding would hurt the economy of smaller communities, especially in the job market.