Advice paying off debt and getting it removed from credit history...

I have a $1000 hospital bill from years ago that I just saw on my credit history, I moved shortly after the incident so I haven't been getting late notices.

It looks like it was moved to a deb collector. Should I settle with the debt collector? Or call up the hospital and pay them? Am I able to get things like this removed from my history but asking? Or is there a specific way I want them to close it out ?