KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A physician convicted in a high-profile Medicare fraud case was killed in a traffic accident this week, two days before he was to start serving his prison sentence.

Robert C. LaHue, 60, of Stilwell, was convicted in 1999 with his physician brother and two former hospital executives of violating the Medicare Anti-kickback Act.

After the U.S. Supreme Court decided last month not to review the case, the defendants were ordered to begin serving their sentences on Wednesday, which would have been LaHue’s 61st birthday.

He was to have reported to a federal prison in Waseca, Minn., to begin a sentence of five years and 10 months.

LaHue’s brother, Ronald, a former Leawood city councilman, got a 51-month sentence and was on his way to a federal prison in Yankton, S.D., when he learned of the accident. On Wednesday U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum granted Ronald LaHue’s request to push back the start of his sentence to after Feb. 14.

Robert LaHue was fatally injured early Monday evening on U.S. Highway 69 in Linn County, about 40 miles south of Overland Park. The Kansas Highway Patrol said his vehicle collided head-on with a tractor-trailer, whose driver was not hurt.

“He just drifted left of center a little bit and made contact with the tractor-trailer,” Trooper Kelly McIntosh said.

LaHue died after being flown to the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

Investigators were awaiting autopsy results, but McIntosh said there was no indication of drug or alcohol involvement. The highway was dry, and investigators were trying to determine why LaHue’s vehicle crossed the center line.

Bruce Houdek, LaHue’s lawyer, said there was no way his client would have crashed deliberately