Wichita ? Medicare cuts are hitting rural nursing homes hard and could result in staff cuts, reduced services and even closures, their advocates say.

Among those affected by the 10 percent drop in Medicare funding is the Memorial Home in Moundridge, about 40 miles from Wichita.

With 115 workers, it is one of the Kansas town’s biggest employers. When its budget goes down, the whole town notices the effects.

Home, which serves about 90 senior citizens, just expanded its assisted-living suites and added a wellness center. That was before the cuts in government funding.

The funding drop is the result of the Medicare payment system established in 1997. Similar drops were due in 1999 and 2000, but those were stopped by congressional action.

Without federal action again, senior-care facilities will lose what nursing home groups estimate as $1.7 billion in the new fiscal year.

Critics of the current payment system said nursing homes were meant for long-term residence, not short-term acute care funded by Medicare.

Staff recruiting already a problem in small towns is more difficult when there’s less money for salaries, said U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican and co-chairman of the Rural Health Care Coalition in Kansas.