A Pittsburgh, Pa.-based health care network filed an application with the state to launch a new domestic company that would write workers’ compensation insurance policies.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) hopes to launch UPMC Work Alliance and write policies by Jan. 1, 2012, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Before approval, UPMC also has to file business plans, capitalization and financing documents, the newspaper reported.

UPMC already offers corporate workers’ compensation insurance through its workplace benefits company, UPMC WorkPartners. But the new company, UPMC Work Alliance, will help spread the risk among separate carriers and allow the insurance division to write different types of policies, according to David Weir, president of UPMC WorkPartners.

UPMC’s insurance division now offers just a “dollar one” or “first dollar” workers’ compensation product, which reimburses a self-insured employer for all of its losses, up to the policy limit, starting at the first dollar, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

UPMC Work Alliance would offer a deductible plan, which requires the insured to meet a deductible threshold before reimbursements begin. Since the new insurance company would carry less risk under these deductible policies, they usually would come with lower premiums.

The WorkPartners’ existing commercial workers’ compensation product has been available since 2010. The company also sells health management, claims management and benefits administration products.