DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS	NOTE 1—DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS Ventas, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated or except where the context otherwise requires, “we,” “us” or “our”), an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) with a highly diversified portfolio of senior housing, research and innovation, and healthcare properties located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. As of June 30, 2020, we owned or managed through unconsolidated joint ventures approximately 1,200 properties (including properties classified as held for sale), consisting of senior housing communities, medical office buildings (“MOBs”), research and innovation centers, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (“IRFs”) and long-term acute care facilities (“LTACs”), and health systems. We also had 20 properties under development, including two properties that are owned by unconsolidated real estate entities. Our company was originally founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. We primarily invest in senior housing, research and innovation, and healthcare properties through acquisitions and lease our properties to unaffiliated tenants or operate them through independent third-party managers. As of June 30, 2020, we leased a total of 385 properties (excluding properties within our office operations reportable business segment) to various healthcare operating companies under “triple-net” or “absolute-net” leases that obligate the tenants to pay all property-related expenses, including maintenance, utilities, repairs, taxes, insurance and capital expenditures. Our three largest tenants, Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “Brookdale Senior Living”), Ardent Health Partners, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Ardent”) and Kindred Healthcare, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Kindred”) leased from us 122 properties (excluding two properties managed by Brookdale Senior Living pursuant to long-term management agreements), 11 properties and 32 properties, respectively, as of June 30, 2020. As of June 30, 2020, pursuant to long-term management agreements, we engaged independent operators, such as Atria Senior Living, Inc. (“Atria”) and Sunrise Senior Living, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Sunrise”), to manage 435 senior housing communities for us. Through our Lillibridge Healthcare Services, Inc. subsidiary and our ownership interest in PMB Real Estate Services LLC, we also provide MOB management, leasing, marketing, facility development and advisory services to highly rated hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. In addition, from time to time, we make secured and non-mortgage loans and other investments relating to senior housing and healthcare operators or properties. COVID-19 Update In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) emerged in China. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. The outbreak has spread around the world, including throughout the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic and actions taken to prevent its spread continue to affect our business in a number of ways. In our senior living operating portfolio, occupancy, revenue and net operating income decreased as resident move-ins decreased and operating costs increased as a result of the pandemic. Our triple-net senior housing tenants experienced similar occupancy, revenue and cost pressure trends as our senior living operators. While we collected substantially all triple-net senior housing rent we expected to receive in the first and second quarters, we have given and may continue to provide financial support to our triple-net tenants in the form of rent deferrals and application of portions of lease deposits to fulfill payment obligations. We also recently made material changes to our senior housing triple-net leases with Holiday Retirement and Brookdale Senior Living, respectively, which will decrease our net operating income. Without financial support or other government assistance, certain of our triple-net senior housing tenants will likely experience worsening financial conditions through the third quarter, which would pressure their rent coverage ratios and may affect their ability to pay us contractual rent in full on a timely basis. In our healthcare triple-net leased properties portfolio, we collected substantially all rent due in the first and second quarters. This cohort of tenants has benefitted from significant government financial support to partially offset the direct financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare providers. Nationally, hospital inpatient admissions and surgeries have rebounded, although still below pre-COVID-19 levels, depending on the particular market. In our office operations segment, we received 99% of contractual rents in the second quarter. Substantially all of our medical office buildings are in states that have either reopened for elective procedures or announced the resumption of elective procedures, which are an important driver of financial performance for many of our medical office tenants. In March 2020, we took precautionary steps to increase liquidity and preserve financial flexibility in light of the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing $2.75 billion under our $3.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. Due to improved capital market conditions and the decisive actions described below, we have since repaid all borrowings under the facility. As of August 5, 2020, we had approximately $3.5 billion in liquidity, including availability under our revolving credit facility, cash and cash equivalents on hand, with no borrowings outstanding under our commercial paper program and negligible near-term debt maturing. In June 2020, our Board of Directors declared a second quarter 2020 dividend of $0.45 per share, which was paid in July and represented a 43 percent reduction from the first quarter dividend of $0.7925 per share. This measure enabled us to conserve approximately $130 million of cash per quarter compared to the prior dividend level. In order to further conserve capital, we have reduced expected capital expenditures for 2020 by $0.3 billion to a new expected total of $0.5 billion, mainly through pausing certain ground-up developments that were not yet substantially underway. Also, in June, we eliminated roles representing over 25% of our corporate positions, excluding onsite field personnel. For the second half of 2020, the base salaries of our CEO and other executive officers was voluntarily reduced by 20% and 10%, respectively. As a result of these capital conservation actions, we expect that our third quarter 2020 annualized general and administrative expenses will be approximately $25 million to $30 million lower than our reported general and administrative expenses for full-year 2019. The federal government, as well as state and local governments, have implemented or announced programs to provide financial and other support to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which benefit or could benefit our company, tenants, operators, borrowers and managers. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Provider Relief Fund for COVID-19 is currently providing grants to licensed senior living providers that bill Medicaid. Eligible providers will receive payments of at least 2% of all annual gross patient care revenues. If HHS funding is ultimately expanded to all licensed senior living providers, we expect most of our senior living communities to benefit. The future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is highly uncertain. Many of the trends highlighted above have continued into the third quarter. The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic’s continued and ultimate effect on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration, spread and intensity of the outbreak, the rate at which governments across the country lift restrictions and the extent and duration of any rollback of restrictions and the availability of government financial support to our business, tenants and operators. Due to these uncertainties, we are not able at this time to estimate the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows but it could be material. We have not identified the COVID-19 pandemic, on its own, as a "triggering event" for purposes of evaluating impairment of real estate assets, goodwill and other intangibles, investments in unconsolidated entities and financial instruments. However, as of June 30, 2020, we considered the effect of the pandemic on certain of our assets (described below) and our ability to recover the respective carrying values of these assets. We applied our considerations to existing critical accounting policies that require us to make estimates and assumptions regarding future events that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities. We based our estimates on our experience and on assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. As a result, we have recognized the following charges for the quarter ended June 30, 2020: •Adjustment to rental income: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that it is probable we would not collect substantially all rents from certain tenants, primarily within our triple-net leased properties segment. As a result, we recognized an adjustment to rental income of $54.2 million. Subsequent to June 30, 2020, rental payments from these tenants will be recognized in rental income when received. •Impairment of real estate assets: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that our estimate of undiscounted cash flows, including a hypothetical terminal value, for certain real estate assets did not exceed the assets' respective carrying values. As such, during the quarter ended June 30, 2020 we recognized $108.8 million of impairments representing the difference between the assets' carrying value and estimated fair value of $192.8 million. The impaired assets, primarily senior housing communities, represent less than 1% of our consolidated net real estate property as of June 30, 2020. Impairments are recorded within depreciation and amortization in our Consolidated Statements of Income and are primarily related to our senior living operations reportable business segment. •Loss on financial instruments and impairment of unconsolidated entities: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that credit losses exist within certain of our non-mortgage loans receivables and government-sponsored pooled loan investments and impairments have occurred with respect to unconsolidated entities. As a result, (a) we established allowances of $20.8 million and $8.8 million, respectively, which reduces the amounts presented on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding loss on financial instruments in our Consolidated Statements of Income, and (b) we recognized an impairment of $10.7 million in an equity investment in an unconsolidated entity. No allowances are recorded within our portfolios of secured mortgage loans or marketable debt securities. •Deferred tax asset valuation allowance: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that it was not more likely than not that deferred tax assets (primarily US federal NOL carryforwards which begin to expire in 2032) would be realized based on our cumulative loss in recent years for certain of our taxable REIT subsidiaries. As a result, we recorded a valuation allowance of $56.4 million against these deferred tax assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding charge to income tax (expense) benefit in our Consolidated Statements of Income.

Ventas, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated or except where the context otherwise requires, “we,” “us” or “our”), an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) with a highly diversified portfolio of senior housing, research and innovation, and healthcare properties located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. As of June 30, 2020, we owned or managed through unconsolidated joint ventures approximately 1,200 properties (including properties classified as held for sale), consisting of senior housing communities, medical office buildings (“MOBs”), research and innovation centers, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (“IRFs”) and long-term acute care facilities (“LTACs”), and health systems. We also had 20 properties under development, including two properties that are owned by unconsolidated real estate entities. Our company was originally founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

As of June 30, 2020, we leased a total of 385 properties (excluding properties within our office operations reportable business segment) to various healthcare operating companies under “triple-net” or “absolute-net” leases that obligate the tenants to pay all property-related expenses, including maintenance, utilities, repairs, taxes, insurance and capital expenditures. Our three largest tenants, Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “Brookdale Senior Living”), Ardent Health Partners, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Ardent”) and Kindred Healthcare, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Kindred”) leased from us 122 properties (excluding two properties managed by Brookdale Senior Living pursuant to long-term management agreements), 11 properties and 32 properties, respectively, as of June 30, 2020.

As of June 30, 2020, pursuant to long-term management agreements, we engaged independent operators, such as Atria Senior Living, Inc. (“Atria”) and Sunrise Senior Living, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Sunrise”), to manage 435 senior housing communities for us.

Through our Lillibridge Healthcare Services, Inc. subsidiary and our ownership interest in PMB Real Estate Services LLC, we also provide MOB management, leasing, marketing, facility development and advisory services to highly rated hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. In addition, from time to time, we make secured and non-mortgage loans and other investments relating to senior housing and healthcare operators or properties.

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) emerged in China. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. The outbreak has spread around the world, including throughout the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic and actions taken to prevent its spread continue to affect our business in a number of ways. In our senior living operating portfolio, occupancy, revenue and net operating income decreased as resident move-ins decreased and operating costs increased as a result of the pandemic.

Our triple-net senior housing tenants experienced similar occupancy, revenue and cost pressure trends as our senior living operators. While we collected substantially all triple-net senior housing rent we expected to receive in the first and second quarters, we have given and may continue to provide financial support to our triple-net tenants in the form of rent deferrals and application of portions of lease deposits to fulfill payment obligations. We also recently made material changes to our senior housing triple-net leases with Holiday Retirement and Brookdale Senior Living, respectively, which will decrease our net operating income. Without financial support or other government assistance, certain of our triple-net senior housing tenants will likely experience worsening financial conditions through the third quarter, which would pressure their rent coverage ratios and may affect their ability to pay us contractual rent in full on a timely basis.

In our healthcare triple-net leased properties portfolio, we collected substantially all rent due in the first and second quarters. This cohort of tenants has benefitted from significant government financial support to partially offset the direct financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare providers. Nationally, hospital inpatient admissions and surgeries have rebounded, although still below pre-COVID-19 levels, depending on the particular market.

In our office operations segment, we received 99% of contractual rents in the second quarter. Substantially all of our medical office buildings are in states that have either reopened for elective procedures or announced the resumption of elective procedures, which are an important driver of financial performance for many of our medical office tenants.

In March 2020, we took precautionary steps to increase liquidity and preserve financial flexibility in light of the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing $2.75 billion under our $3.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. Due to improved capital market conditions and the decisive actions described below, we have since repaid all borrowings under the facility. As of August 5, 2020, we had approximately $3.5 billion in liquidity, including availability under our revolving credit facility, cash and cash equivalents on hand, with no borrowings outstanding under our commercial paper program and negligible near-term debt maturing.

In June 2020, our Board of Directors declared a second quarter 2020 dividend of $0.45 per share, which was paid in July and represented a 43 percent reduction from the first quarter dividend of $0.7925 per share. This measure enabled us to conserve approximately $130 million of cash per quarter compared to the prior dividend level. In order to further conserve capital, we have reduced expected capital expenditures for 2020 by $0.3 billion to a new expected total of $0.5 billion, mainly through pausing certain ground-up developments that were not yet substantially underway. Also, in June, we eliminated roles representing over 25% of our corporate positions, excluding onsite field personnel. For the second half of 2020, the base salaries of our CEO and other executive officers was voluntarily reduced by 20% and 10%, respectively. As a result of these capital conservation actions, we expect that our third quarter 2020 annualized general and administrative expenses will be approximately $25 million to $30 million lower than our reported general and administrative expenses for full-year 2019.

The federal government, as well as state and local governments, have implemented or announced programs to provide financial and other support to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which benefit or could benefit our company, tenants, operators, borrowers and managers. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Provider Relief Fund for COVID-19 is currently providing grants to licensed senior living providers that bill Medicaid. Eligible providers will receive payments of at least 2% of all annual gross patient care revenues. If HHS funding is ultimately expanded to all licensed senior living providers, we expect most of our senior living communities to benefit.

The future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is highly uncertain. Many of the trends highlighted above have continued into the third quarter. The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic’s continued and ultimate effect on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration, spread and intensity of the outbreak, the rate at which governments across the country lift restrictions and the extent and duration of any rollback of restrictions and the availability of government financial support to our business, tenants and operators. Due to these uncertainties, we are not able at this time to estimate the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows but it could be material.

We have not identified the COVID-19 pandemic, on its own, as a "triggering event" for purposes of evaluating impairment of real estate assets, goodwill and other intangibles, investments in unconsolidated entities and financial instruments. However, as of June 30, 2020, we considered the effect of the pandemic on certain of our assets (described below) and our ability to recover the respective carrying values of these assets. We applied our considerations to existing critical accounting policies that require us to make estimates and assumptions regarding future events that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities. We based our estimates on our experience and on assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. As a result, we have recognized the following charges for the quarter ended June 30, 2020:

•Adjustment to rental income: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that it is probable we would not collect substantially all rents from certain tenants, primarily within our triple-net leased properties segment. As a result, we recognized an adjustment to rental income of $54.2 million. Subsequent to June 30, 2020, rental payments from these tenants will be recognized in rental income when received.

•Impairment of real estate assets: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that our estimate of undiscounted cash flows, including a hypothetical terminal value, for certain real estate assets did not exceed the assets' respective carrying values. As such, during the quarter ended June 30, 2020 we recognized $108.8 million of impairments representing the difference between the assets' carrying value and estimated fair value of $192.8 million. The impaired assets, primarily senior housing communities, represent less than 1% of our consolidated net real estate property as of June 30, 2020. Impairments are recorded within depreciation and amortization in our Consolidated Statements of Income and are primarily related to our senior living operations reportable business segment.

•Loss on financial instruments and impairment of unconsolidated entities: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that credit losses exist within certain of our non-mortgage loans receivables and government-sponsored pooled loan investments and impairments have occurred with respect to unconsolidated entities. As a result, (a) we established allowances of $20.8 million and $8.8 million, respectively, which reduces the amounts presented on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding loss on financial instruments in our Consolidated Statements of Income, and (b) we recognized an impairment of $10.7 million in an equity investment in an unconsolidated entity. No allowances are recorded within our portfolios of secured mortgage loans or marketable debt securities.

•Deferred tax asset valuation allowance: As of June 30, 2020, we concluded that it was not more likely than not that deferred tax assets (primarily US federal NOL carryforwards which begin to expire in 2032) would be realized based on our cumulative loss in recent years for certain of our taxable REIT subsidiaries. As a result, we recorded a valuation allowance of $56.4 million against these deferred tax assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding charge to income tax (expense) benefit in our Consolidated Statements of Income.