. >> she's been unconscious in the intensive care unit at dartmouth hitchcock medical center in lebanon, new hampshire, for the better part of a week. one of her doctors, ira byock, told us it costs up to $10,000 a day to maintain someone in the icu. >> this is the way so many americans die. something like 18% to 20% of americans spend their last days in an icu. and, you know, it's extremely expensive. it's uncomfortable. many times they have to be sedated so that they don't reflexively pull out a tube, or sometimes their hands are restrained. this is not the way most people would want to spend their last days of life. and yet this has become almost the medical last rites for, you know, people as they die. okay, let's go see her. >> dr. byock leads a team that treats and counsels patients with advanced illnesses. >> hello, there. >> he says modern medicine has become so good at keeping the terminally ill alive by treating complications of underlying disease that the inevitable process of dying has become much harder and is often prolonged unnecessarily. >> families cannot imagine there

. >> reporter: dartmouth hitchcock in new hampshire has fewer patients, fewer tests, fewer surgeries. >> i don't think we want to try to incentivize people to come to a hospital. >> reporter: the hospitals say the incentives are paid not for growth alone. and even if their not for profit world, profiments are needed to keep institutions afloat. but the american hospital association agrees the practice of rewarding ceos for more, more, more needs to evolve. >> we're all learning. providers and consumers, that that lain of thinking has to change. >> reporter: until it does, critics say ceos will get richer, while health care gets no better. jim avila, a b bc news, washing. >> jim, thank you. >>> and on this father's day, the first time ever a father and daughter are spending it together in phoenix, arizona. but it turns out they'd already been side by side for some time. amy has long been a volunteer at this phoenix rescue mission. >> you talk with these guys and you just -- it's all about hope. >> reporter: and amy has been holding out hope, too. adopted, she has long hoped to meet her

. >> reporter: dartmouth-hitchcock in new hampshire hailed as an example of what hospitals should beday's world. fewer patients. fewer tests. fewer surgeries. >> i don't think we want to try to in sentivize people to come to the hospital. >> reporter: the hospital says incentives are paid not for growth alone. even in their not for profit worlds. profits are needed to keep institution as float. but the american hospital association agrees, the practice of rewarding ceos for more, more, more, needs to evolve. >> we are all learning, providers and consumers, that line of thinking has to change. >> until it does, critics say ceos will get richer while health care gets no better. jim avila, abc news, washington. >> that makes me mad. >> i never had a job where i had a bonus. seeing a $3 million bonus. >> that is your bonus. >> i get everything is a ness. if you are making that kind of green, do you really need that, a type of bonus as opposed to reinvesting, that money in the facility itself. >> what they're going to say for arguments like that. look at all the advance technology we have