My question involves collection proceedings in the State of:Texas.
I received services from an ER at a hospital and paid all co pays when services were rendered. It was done under my mother's insurance and we received a bill from the insurance showing what they paid and the amount of $162 that we were responsible for. That amount was paid promptly. I did not receive an additional statement or bill. Months later I've recently purchased a pre owned vehicle and was told I had a collection filed against me on my credit report. I did some research and to the best of my knowledge the hospital sold a debt of $465 to a collection agency that filed it against me on my credit report. I have never been contacted by the hospital, or the collection agency. I contacted them and was told I needed to pay the amount in full, that they had been attempting to contact me. I realize and am more than willing to pay this bill, but I have a few questions as I'd like to completely remove the negative account from my credit report.
A) Should I have any contact with the original hospital at all? Or should I only work with the collection agency that filed the negative account on my credit report? It shows their name, and lists the hospital as the original creditor.
B) Is it true that I can "pay for removal"? If at all possible, I don't want the debt to just be marked paid. I did not know I owed this money or I would have resolved this issue before it snowballed to it's current state. I would prefer the negative account be completely removed from my credit as if it never happened. Does the collection company have the legal ability to do this?
C) Do I have any course of action? I feel this is unfair that my credit is being damaged over something I didn't know I owed. It's very frustrating, I don't have a lot of money, but would have gladly resolved the debt as I work hard to pay all of my bills on time.
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated... I feel like I should sign up for some sort of credit monitoring... Thanks everyone.

