§ 7552.Health care arbitration proceedings

Rather than building an entirely separate procedural code, CPLR 7552 folds Article 75-A's arbitrations into the CPLR's general arbitration article. Article 75 supplies the default procedure, and Article 75-A layers its own rules on top only where it says something different. The arbitration administrator, with the superintendent of financial services signing off, fills in the operational details through its own rules.

The section then makes a substantive choice that shapes every hearing under this article: the standard of care applied to a physician, dentist, hospital, HMO, or other provider is the same standard that would govern a comparable medical or dental malpractice action in court. Moving the dispute into arbitration doesn't loosen or change what a plaintiff has to show about the provider's conduct.

Damages follow the same logic. They're measured by the law that applies to medical and dental malpractice actions generally, and contingency fee agreements between an injured party and their attorney remain valid and subject to the same rules that govern contingency fees in malpractice litigation. The arbitration forum changes; the underlying substantive law does not.