Total Renal Care

Total Renal Care was the predecessor of DaVita. It consolidated a fragmented outpatient dialysis industry before financial and operational problems in 1998 and 1999 triggered the turnaround that created DaVita.

Total Renal Care grew out of Medical Ambulatory Care, a dialysis operator founded in 1979, and became an independent company in the mid-1990s. Through the 1990s it acquired many independent dialysis clinics and in 1998 merged with Renal Treatment Centers. Integration went badly. Billing and accounting problems, heavy debt, and shareholder litigation pushed the company into crisis by 1999. The board hired Kent Thiry as CEO, and in 2000 the company was renamed DaVita. Berkshire Hathaway began buying DaVita shares in 2011 and now owns about 45%. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).