I am the first to admit I am not a good (or even passable) programmer, but I could not find a work-around for this that did not include a c_trace. Here is roughly what I came up with to test:
Code:

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var EntLoc[3]=-1536,-896,50; //the firstloc of the entity

entity* TestEnt;

string Warlock = <warlock.mdl>;
string TestString (Testing);

function CreateEntTest();
function DrawText();

function DrawText()
{
	var TextPos; //where the text should appear
	TestEnt = my;
	while(1)
	{
		vec_set(TextPos,vector(my.x-20,my.y,my.z+55)); //sets the 'text' above the model.Play with the + values
		vec_set(temp,TextPos);
		vec_to_screen(temp,camera);
		if (c_trace(TextPos,camera.x,IGNORE_ME|IGNORE_PASSABLE)==0&&temp!=0) 
		{
			draw_text(TestString,temp.x,temp.y,vector(255,50,50));
	   }
		wait(1);
	}
}

function CreateEntTest()
{
	ent_create(Warlock,EntLoc,DrawText); //creates the entity at the current location and calls the DrawText function
	EntLoc.x+=256; //increases the location by 256 units. Sometimes its created behind blocks etc.
}

on_a=CreateEntTest(); 

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That is of course quick and dirty for testing. It works ok...except for a couple issues. The text gets bigger the further away the entity is, as well as a few other size and location formatting errors. I think I have to come up with a different method because it looks goofy