  We consider the role of hadronic rescattering of daughter kaons on the
observed mass spectra from $\phi$ meson decays in ultra-relativistic heavy ion
collisions. A hadronic cascade code (RQMD v2.4) shows that $\sim$26% of all
$\phi$'s decaying to $K^+K^-$ in central Pb+Pb collisions at SPS energies
($E_{beam} = 158 GeV/A$) have a rescattered or absorbed daughter. This
significantly affects the reconstructed invariant mass of the pair and shifts
$\phi$ mesons out of the mass peak. Kaon rescattering depletes the low velocity
region, hardening and broadening the observed phi $m_t$ and rapidity
distributions respectively, relative to the dilepton channel. This effect
produces an apparent change in the experimentally determined branching ratio
not necessarily related to chiral symmetry restoration. Comparisons to recent
experimental measures at CERN energies reveal a possible mechanism to account
for the shape of the observed spectra, though not their absolute relative
magnitude.
