Your existing unit is already a heat pump, it just has the $10 reversing valve deleted so that it can only run in A/C mode. Because American manufacturers like to do that, and American customers put up with it.
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I mean, you know how the inside A/C gets cold and the outside unit gets hot. The A/C isn't making that heat... it's just moving that heat from inside your house. The reversing valve just flips that so it brings heat into the house.
And in above-freezing weather, it can do this at 200-500% efficiency. i.e. spending 1 unit of electricity moves 2-5 units worth of heat.
Heat pumps also tend to be the most efficient air conditioners too.
They don't have absolute ratings, because operating conditions vary. But all units are tested to a standard, so you can accurately compare units to each other.
For cooling, the rating is called SEER. Your old air conditioner is probably 5-8 SEER... the cheapest junkiest "air conditioner only" unit they'll sell today is 13 SEER (twice as efficient/half the electric bill). The better heat pumps are typically 20-24 SEER in cooling mode, so the electric bill almost halves again.
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For heat pump heating, the rating is called COP. Again bigger is better.
If it use R-22 refrigerant, the unit is "on borrowed time" as R-22 can no longer be obtained. Next time it needs servicing, you will get a "surprise" as you suddenly need to replace the whole system. Nothing can be salvaged except the concrete pad.
If it has a poor SEER number, then it's driving up your electric bill.
However, you can "limp along" the old A/C for awhile. But in that case I would install a second newer system alongside it both to increase capacity and have redundancy. Meaning if one system quits you still have the other, so you're not boiling or freezing.
The second system could be a heat pump.
It could also be a new family of heat pumps called "Mini-splits". These put a unit outside on a pad, and multiple individual heater/cooler heads in each room. They add noise and take wall space, but they can be cheaper.
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