Variable Interest Entities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Variable Interest Entities

Variable interest entities

The Company manages or maintains an ownership interest in certain legal entities subject to the consolidation guidance applicable to variable interest entities (VIEs). Almost all of the VIEs the Company consolidates are either U.S. dialysis partnerships encumbered by guaranteed debt, U.S. dialysis limited partnerships, U.S. integrated kidney care subsidiaries, non-U.S. subsidiaries that are structurally dependent on subordinated debt, or other legal entities subject to nominee ownership arrangements.

Under U.S. GAAP, VIEs typically include entities for which (i) the entity’s equity is not sufficient to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support; (ii) the equity holders as a group lack the power to direct the activities that most significantly influence the entity’s economic performance, the obligation to absorb the entity’s expected losses, or the right to receive the entity’s expected returns; or (iii) the voting rights of some investors are not proportional to their obligations to absorb the entity’s losses.

The substantial majority of VIEs the Company is associated with are U.S. dialysis partnerships which the Company manages and in which it maintains a controlling majority ownership interest. These U.S. dialysis partnerships are considered VIEs either because they are (i) encumbered by debt guaranteed proportionately by the partners that is considered necessary to finance the partnership's activities, or (ii) in the form of limited partnerships for which the limited partners are not considered to have substantive kick-out or participating rights. The Company consolidates virtually all such U.S. dialysis partnerships.

Also, certain wholly-owned entities employed in the Company's integrated kidney care business constitute VIEs since by design these entities require additional subordinated financial support. The Company believes it has the most power over these entities' most significant activities and the Company is fully exposed to all or almost all of their expected losses. The Company therefore consolidates these wholly-owned entities as its subsidiaries.

Finally, some of the Company's business units rely on the operating activities of certain nominee-owned legal entities in which it does not maintain a controlling ownership interest but over which it has indirect influence and of which it is considered the primary beneficiary. These entities are subject to transfer restriction, management and other agreements that effectively transfer substantial ultimate powers over, and economic responsibility for, these entities to the Company. The Company consolidates all of the nominee-owned entities with which it is most closely associated.

In addition to the consolidated entities described above, the Company maintains minor equity method or other venture capital investments in certain development-stage investees which qualify as VIEs based on their capitalization. The Company has concluded that it is not the primary beneficiary of any of these investees.

For the VIEs described above, these consolidated financial statements include total assets of $577,585 and total liabilities and noncontrolling interests to third parties of $249,900 at December 31, 2024.

The Company also sponsors certain non-qualified deferred compensation plans whose trusts qualify as VIEs and the Company consolidates these plans as their primary beneficiary. The assets of these plans are recorded in short-term or long-term investments with related liabilities recorded in accrued compensation and benefits and other long-term liabilities. See Notes 4 and 14 for disclosures concerning the assets of these consolidated non-qualified deferred compensation plans.