<prompt> Human: I remember seeing this bill and thinking I need to pay that, but forgot about it until I got a collection notice today.After doing some dumb things in my youth, I got my act together and my credit is finally getting good after years of paying on time and not being irresponsible with money and credit. Ive paid off a car, have another car loan, a couple credit cards that are used sparingly, I have a good job and plenty of money to pay this bill with, but now it seems Im stuck with a black mark on my credit.I could pay the collection agency immediately, but I dont know if thats the best move here. Advice?UPDATE: called up the hospital and they took payment over the phone, said they would remove it from collections, that it wouldnt have shown up on credit report unless just I didnt pay it. Im still going to keep an eye on my credit report to make sure nothing silly happens.  <response>: First, call the hospital and see if you can still pay the through them. If you do, then it should drop of your report not sure if it will automatically or not. Else, in writing, get the collection agency to prove the debt is yours, then offer to pay in full with a pay for delete. They may or may not do the pay for delete. Id pay the bill for the full amount though since its a cheap bill. 