DENHAM SPRINGS — An 11-year-old girl from Denham Springs battling a rare brain tumor has had to move to Ohio with her family after Louisiana Medicaid would not cover key parts of her out-of-state treatment.

WBRZ first shared Katie Tanton's story in April. She has been traveling between Louisiana and Ohio for a clinical trial at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus to treat diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a rare form of brain tumor.

Katie has been taking multiple forms of medication as part of the trial.

"They've been helping to shrink the tumor, and some of the tumor has been dying off. It's been causing a little swelling. She's been pretty unbalanced. She's been kind of emotional," her dad, Austin Tanton, said.

The family recently learned that Louisiana Medicaid's out-of-state coverage would not cover certain medical needs. While Nationwide Children's covers the medication and research portion of the trial, other costs are not included.

"Nothing else is covered," Katie's mom, Breann Tanton, said. "Her clinic visits aren't covered, lab work, imaging, EKGs, all of the things that she has to have done on a regular basis. The cost is going to add up really quickly, especially when you add MRIs in there."

To receive full coverage for Katie's treatment, the family decided to move to Ohio and apply for Ohio's Medicaid. Breann said one of the hardest parts was uprooting Katie from her family, friends and the place she knew.

"She's really missing her friends, too," Austin said.

Because of the constant travel for treatment, the parents have not been able to work.

"Honestly, just crowd-funding, fundraising, that's all we really can do. I mean, this is not the time of Katie's life or our lives where we can even bear to think about going back to work, so she needs full-time care right now," Breann said.

WBRZ has reached out to the Louisiana Department of Health for more information about coverage and will update this story when a response is received.