Earnings per share Earnings per share - Reconciliation of numberators and denominators used to calculate basic and diluted earnings per share (Details) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2020	Sep. 30, 2019	Sep. 30, 2020	Sep. 30, 2019
Numerators:
Net income from continuing operations attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 158,674	$ 150,113	$ 589,889	$ 464,590
Net income from discontinued operations attributable to DaVita Inc.	0	(6,843)	9,980	101,520
Net income attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 158,674	$ 143,270	$ 599,869	$ 566,110
Weighted average shares outstanding during period	120,905,000	150,675,000	122,582,000	161,147,000
Assumed incremental shares from stock plans	3,049,000	621,000	2,345,000	489,000
Weighted average shares for diluted earnings per share calculation	123,953,879	151,295,950	124,927,380	161,636,011
Basic:
Basic net income from continuing operations per share	$ 1.31	$ 1.00	$ 4.81	$ 2.88
Basic net income (loss) from discontinued operations per share	0	(0.05)	0.08	0.63
Basic net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	1.31	0.95	4.89	3.51
Diluted:
Diluted net income from continuing operations per share	1.28	0.99	4.72	2.87
Diluted net income from discontinued operations per share	0	(0.04)	0.08	0.63
Diluted net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 1.28	$ 0.95	$ 4.80	$ 3.50
Anti-dilutive stock-settled awards excluded from calculation	2,765,000	7,293,000	3,063,000	6,414,000