Earnings per share Earnings per share - Reconciliation of numerators 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, 2023	Sep. 30, 2022	Sep. 30, 2023	Sep. 30, 2022
Numerators:
Net income attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 246,632	$ 105,366	$ 540,870	$ 492,297
Weighted average basic shares outstanding during period	91,322,000	91,160,000	90,937,000	93,959,000
Assumed incremental from stock plans	2,719,000	2,103,000	2,380,000	3,194,000
Weighted average diluted shares outstanding during period	94,041,000	93,263,000	93,317,000	97,153,000
Basic net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 2.70	$ 1.16	$ 5.95	$ 5.24
Diluted net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 2.62	$ 1.13	$ 5.80	$ 5.07
Anti-dilutive stock-settled awards excluded from calculation	271,000	1,260,000	615,000	878,000