I agree with @gorgeguy’s earlier comment that you should find a hearing care professional who uses best practices. A good way to screen for that is to ask if they do “real ear measurement” (REM). Some audiologists will post it on their website if they employ this basic procedure when fitting hearing aids.
@Don mentioned Zip Hearing, a good suggestion. A similar on line company is Hearing Revolution (www.hearingrevolution.com). They are the direct-to-the-consumer arm of Hearing Care Solutions, which provides hearing aids for many insurance companies. I have found their prices in the past to be better than Zip’s. They offer the full spectrum of hearing aid companies, including Phonak.,and the full range of models within each company, all at significantly discounted prices. I have found them easy to work with. You buy the hearing aids from them and they mail them to an audiologist whom you choose from a list of options in your area. So, it is important to get the list of audiologists first so you can screen them in advance. Once you pick the audiologist, s/he does the fitting and you have the standard trial period to see if you want to keep them.
Another alternative is to try the Speech & Hearing Clinic if a nearby university if their is one near you which trains audiologists. They are highly likely to employ best practices because they teach this study and often do research as well. The clinic near me Carrie’s the full range of hearing companies and accepts insurance.
I have found that it is not uncommon for audiologist to favor one particular company. I assume that they get a bonus for reaching a certain sales volume. I hate this because it feels like dealing with a car salesman. The whole process of picking a hearing aid and a manufacturer can be very confusing and having an audiologist favoring one brand or another just adds to the confusion. If the audiologist doesn’t have hearing loss, they don’t really know what we experience.
Best of luck.