WASHINGTON – In July, the Obama administration rolled out an ambitious five-year plan for moving doctors and hospitals to computerized medical records, promising greater safety for patients and lower costs.

Starting next year, doctors' offices and hospitals can get federal money to help defray the costs of the systems, which can run to millions of dollars for hospitals. Providers who don't comply by 2015 will face cuts in Medicare payments.

Federal incentive payments for doctors and hospitals to buy computerized systems could reach $27 billion over 10 years, and that's only a fraction of what technology vendors stand to take in. It's hoped the investment will streamline the delivery of medical care, yielding long-run savings.

Patients get the benefit of systems that can warn doctors before they make a mistake _ prescribing a drug that could cause a severe reaction, for example. And there's also the convenience of being able to access records online.

The move by the Health and Human Services Department came with the release of two regulations hundreds of pages long. The main one described how doctors and hospitals can qualify for federal money by acquiring systems that meet certain "meaningful use" standards. A companion rule outlined how the systems will be certified.

Administration officials said they lowered the number of initial, "core" capabilities that the systems have to demonstrate in order for providers to get federal money, and allowed a longer period of time to achieve others.

They also lowered several additional requirements. Only 40 percent of medications will have to be electronically prescribed, as opposed to 75 percent as the government initially proposed.

Doctors' offices can receive as much as $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid for installing computer systems that meet federal standards. Hospitals can receive millions. Money for electronic records was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.