Leasing Arrangements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Leasing Arrangements

8. Leasing Arrangements

We lease office space for our vision centers under lease arrangements that qualify as operating leases. For leases that contain pre-determined fixed escalations of the minimum rentals and/or rent abatements subsequent to taking possession of the leased property, we recognize the related rent expense on a straight-line basis and record the difference between the recognized rental expense and amounts payable under the leases as deferred lease credits. We used capitalized leases to finance certain excimer lasers used in the laser vision correction procedures. We included capital lease assets in property and equipment.

The following table displays our aggregate minimal rental commitments, net of guaranteed sub-lease income under noncancellable leases for the periods shown (dollars in thousands):

Year	Operating Lease Obligations
2013	$	8,097
2014		5,127
2015		3,799
2016		3,225
2017		2,257
Beyond 2017		1,261
Total minimum rental commitment	$	23,766

Total rent expense under operating leases amounted to $6.3 million in 2012, $6.7 million in 2011 and $8.1 million in 2010.

In March and April 2009, we entered into five-year lease agreements with Alcon and AMO, respectively, for new excimer lasers which allowed us to standardize our excimer treatment platforms. As part of the transactions, we disposed of our Bausch & Lomb lasers and related capital lease obligations. We received cash payments from the lessors and have deferred these amounts and are recognizing them ratably over the lease terms. We include the unrecognized portion in “Accrued liabilities and other” for the current portion and in “Deferred license fees” for the long-term portion in our Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2012 and 2011. The AMO laser lease qualified as a capital lease, and the Alcon laser lease qualified as an operating lease. However, at December 31, 2012, we did not have any obligations under the capital lease arrangement with AMO.